The Times - 28 December 2017

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Thursday December 28 2017 | thetimes.co.uk | No 72417
417
2G
2
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Only
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�to subscribers �60
Atherton
at the
Ashes
Caitlin Moran?s Celebrity
Watch Awards 2017
Sport,
pages 70-71
Times2
Davis sidelined as civil servant takes over Brexit negotiations
Oliver Wright Policy Editor
The EU?s lead negotiator has held faceto-face talks with David Davis?s former
chief official in a breach of protocol that
is regarded in Brussels as evidence of
the Brexit secretary being sidelined.
Mr Davis has been the public face
of the talks, but sources say that
Oliver Robbins, his former permanent
secretary, is in effect running the
negotiations. They add that Mr Robbins
is dealing directly with Michel Barnier
as well as Sabine Weyand, his opposite
number in the European Commission.
The Department for Exiting the
European Union (Dexeu) described the
idea of Mr Davis being sidelined as
?wholly inaccurate? but did not deny
that Mr Robbins had held talks with Mr
Barnier without Mr Davis being
present.
Before the Brexit talks started Mr
Davis made much of his role as Britain?s
chief negotiator, saying that he expected
to be ?sitting opposite? Mr Barnier,
leading the UK?s delegation. In reality
Mr Davis?s role has been more limited.
He has met Mr Barnier for only
a couple of hours at the end of each
negotiating round. Official figures
show that between July and September
Mr Davis visited Brussels for four
days compared with the 18 days
Mr Robbins spent in talks with EU
negotiators.
Senior figures in Brussels say that Mr
Robbins?s role became increasingly
influential after he left Dexeu to lead a
newly formed European unit in the
Cabinet Office. In that role he reports
directly to Theresa May rather than Mr
Davis. Sources in London and Brussels
said that he was the key British figure in
the talks that led to the agreement this
month on citizens? rights and the
divorce settlement. At the time of Mr
Robbins?s departure Dexeu said that
Mr Davis remained in charge of the
Continued on page 2, col 3
JEFF OVERS/PA
Met Police
is failing
to protect
children
Force criticised for negligence in 90% of cases
Fiona Hamilton Crime Editor
Britain?s biggest police force is worse
at helping children at risk of sexual
exploitation and rape than it was 12
months ago when a damning report
found systemic failings, The Times can
reveal.
Scotland Yard failed to properly
handle 90 per cent of the child protection cases examined by the police watchdog in a fresh assessment delivered last
month. The Metropolitan Police was
criticised for the poor attitudes of
officers dealing with missing children,
delays of up to three days in responding
to cases, failures to record the concerns
of children and a lack of proactive
investigation.
The report by Her Majesty?s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services found ?significant weaknesses in the service provided to the
children of London?. The revelation
comes after the Met said last week that
it would review hundreds of rape and
sexual abuse cases because disclosure
failures had led two trials to collapse.
The inspectorate?s child protection
assessment was delivered on November
27, a year after the watchdog handed
down what sources said was the
?most damning review? in its history.
Inspectors found in 2016 that three
quarters of child protection and abuse
cases were poorly handled and that the
force, then led by Lord Hogan-Howe,
focused more on burglary and vehicle
theft. Amber Rudd, the home secretary,
ordered quarterly inspections of the
Met?s child abuse command amid
alarm that the force could be sitting on
a Rotherham-style grooming scandal.
Lord Hogan-Howe?s successor,
Cressida Dick, promised to prioritise
safeguarding issues when she took over
the Met in April. In the November
report, inspectors reviewed a random
sample of 135 cases involving possible
child sexual exploitation, missing
children, domestic abuse cases and
other forms of abuse. They found that
just under 93 per cent were ?inadequate
or required improvement?. The report
said that there was a ?disappointing
quality of investigations and outcomes?
and 18 cases were sent back to the force
for further investigation.
The inspectorate?s report did not
include all aspects of the Met?s work in
countering child abuse. Last year?s
inspection involved a larger sample
and the results were better, although
still poor ? 278 of 374 cases were
inadequate or required improvement.
The latest inspection said: ?The number of weaknesses uncovered in too
many of the cases examined in this
quarter continues to reflect those
which we reported in 2016.?
Matt Parr, Her Majesty?s inspector
for London, told The Times that a key
failing last year was that the senior
Continued on page 2, col 3
Royal inquisitor Prince Harry guest-edited Radio 4?s Today programme yesterday, focusing on mental health, the armed forces
and the charitable sector. He interviewed Barack Obama, who warned against the irresponsible use of social media. Page 23
Arctic blast brings travel chaos and power cuts
Will Humphries
Britain faces two more days of the
sub-zero conditions that have caused
widespread travel disruption and left
thousands of homes without power.
A yellow weather warning issued by
the Met Office was due to be in place
until mid-morning today, with a further
alert for icy conditions tomorrow.
Up to three inches of snow fell over
Exmoor, south Wales and the Cotswolds in the early hours of yesterday. As
the snow swept eastwards through the
Midlands, commuters faced disruption
on some of the country?s busiest motorways and at rail stations and airports.
Heavy rain and snowfall left almost
50,000 homes without power and last
night about 9,500 homes were still
without electricity as engineers worked
in the darkness to reconnect them.
A band of rain, sleet and snow is set
to move southeast today and will be
followed by a very cold and frosty
period lasting until Saturday.
Forecasters are expecting ice to form
on untreated roads and pavements
today and warned that grit could be
washed off by rain.
Steve Willington, chief meteorologist
at the Met Office, said that today would
be cold and sunny, before wintry showers
set in. Tomorrow a band of heavy rain
is expected to move eastwards over
the UK. ?With cold air in place, a spell of
snow looks likely to develop on its
eastern edge tomorrow,? Mr Willington
said. ?Above about 100m, 2cm to 5cm of
snow is possible quite widely, and up to
10cm over higher ground. Some places to
the east of the Pennines may see some
accumulating snow to lower levels.?
NHS England said that the risk of
heart attacks, strokes and other serious
illness increases with a cold snap. The
elderly and vulnerable were advised to
heat their homes to at least 18C.
Thomas Waite, of the extreme events
team at Public Health England, said:
?Every winter thousands of people die
from illnesses linked to exposure to the
cold when indoors and outside. That?s
why it?s so important we all look out for
each other.?
Thousands left in the dark, page 7
Full forecast, page 60
2
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
News
T O D AY ? S E D I T I O N
Downside of a
university offer
Woman founder 2017 was UK?s
honoured at last greenest year
A-level pupils are
23 per cent more likely
to fall short of their
predicted grades if
they have received an
unconditional offer
from a university, a
study suggests. Page 4
The joint founder of the
UK?s most successful
theatre company will be
made a dame in the new
year?s honours ? four
years after her business
partner and husband
became a knight. Page 11
The first day without
coal power since the
Industrial Revolution
and a dozen other
environmental records
made 2017 Britain?s
greenest year, said
campaigners. Page 15
COMMENT
We should join the Americans in celebrating
Churchill?s stand against Nazism
IAIN MARTIN, PAGE 33
Japan to build
aircraft carrier
China firm buys
stake in Volvo
Liverpool sign
�m Van Dijk
Japan is set to develop
its first aircraft carriers
since the Second
World War to counter
Chinese expansionism
in Asia Pacific and the
threat posed by North
Korea. Page 36
Geely, the Chinese
automotive group that
makes London taxis, is
to become the largest
shareholder in the
Volvo lorry and bus
maker, valued at
� billion. Page 43
Virgil van Dijk, 26,
became the world?s
most expensive
defender when
Liverpool signed the
Holland centre back
from Southampton for
� million. Page 72
COMMENT 31
LEADING ARTICLES 35
WORLD 36
BUSINESS 43
REGISTER 55
LAW REPORT 57
SPORT 61
CROSSWORD 72
TV & RADIO TIMES2
FOLLOW US
thetimes
timesandsundaytimes
DINNER
TONIGHT
Stilton, celeriac
and walnut tart
People who don?t like
Stilton wolf down this
tart. It is rich and
satisfying and good
hot or cold but
probably best
lukewarm. Peeled and
diced raw pears tossed
with lemon juice can
be used instead of
celeriac.
Serves 6-8 Prep 30 min
Cook 45 min
Ingredients: 250g
shortcrust pastry;
400g celeriac; 1 tbsp
veg oil; 3 eggs; 300ml
double cream or half
and half; 200g Stilton;
50g quince paste/
Membrillo; 12 walnuts
or 40g walnut pieces.
Heat oven to 200C/
gas mark 6. Roll pastry
to fit 23cm flan tin,
pressing down gently
into the base edges,
leaving 2cm overhang.
Place on baking sheet
and loosely cover with
foil. Cover base with
baking beans or rice
and bake for 10 min.
Remove foil and cook
for 10 min until biscuit
coloured. Peel celeriac,
cut into bite-size
chunks and boil until
just tender. Drain and
fry for 5 min in hot oil
thetimes
to get crusty edges.
Whisk the eggs in a
mixing bowl, stir in the
cream and a pinch of
salt. Cut the Stilton into
kebab-size chunks. Cut
Membrillo into
Dolly
D
ol Mixture-sized
pieces. Break up
walnuts. Pile celeriac
into the tart case,
cover with Stilton and
scatter Membrillo and
walnuts over top. Add
eggs, not worrying if
some food pokes
through. Turn oven to
190C/gas mark 5. Bake
for 35-45 min until
puffy and golden, with
a slight wobble in the
middle. Remove from
oven, slice off pastry
overhang and remove
collar. Serve hot, warm
or cold.
Lindsey Bareham
OFFER
Why pay more? Save money on your daily
papers with a subscription to The Times
PLEASE SEE PAGES 28-29 FOR DETAILS
THE WEATHER
Kat Lay Health Correspondent
Hospitals made a record �4 million
last year by charging patients, visitors
and staff to park their cars.
Health campaigners condemned the
charges as extortionate while the Department of Health said that ?complex
and unfair parking charges? could add
to families? stress.
An investigation found that the
amount taken by hospitals in parking
fines had increased by 32 per cent in a
year, to almost �0,000. Fifty-six
trusts charged disabled people to park
in disabled bays.
Rachel Power, chief executive of The
Patients Association, said the state of
NHS finances meant that it was sometimes hard to blame hospitals for trying
to find money, although this did not
make the situation acceptable.
She said: ?For patients, parking
charges amount to an extra charge for
being ill. The increase in the number of
trusts who are charging for disabled
parking is particularly concerning.
Patients who require disabled parking
continued from page 1
Child protection failures
leadership was not engaged with the
grooming risk that came with missing
children. He said the issue had been
prioritised at the highest level of the
Met but the need for change had not
filtered down to ordinary officers.
He said: ?We don?t underestimate the
challenge of bringing change in a force
the size of the Met. We get that it is hard
but we are a little disappointed that we
haven?t seen the senior engagement
[result in] demonstrably better outcomes
for children, a year after we made the
very critical report.?
The same 135 cases were also
assessed internally by the Met and, the
inspectorate said, the ?ray of light? was
that the Met?s overview team also believed the investigations were wanting.
Mr Parr did not conclude that standards had fallen; this was because of
proactivity at senior level and the fact
that the quarterly report referred to a
smaller sample.
The latest inspection revealed that
children who should have been categorised as missing were being labelled as
being at ?no apparent risk?, and there
were delays in responding to reports of
missing children, from six hours to, in
one case, three days. In some cases
there was no communication with
social services about missing children
even when they were known to the
authorities. There was not enough proactive investigation.
Inspectors also found that officers
made inappropriate comments in relation to missing children, such as ?it?s
what they always do?. While inspectors
found examples of ?good child-centred
may have little choice but to access
their care by car, and may need to do so
often. Targeting them in this way feels
rather cynical.?
The Press Association asked 120
NHS trusts for figures on parking charges and fines and received responses
from 111. They found that hospitals
across England had taken �4,526,970
in parking charges in 2016-17, up 6 per
cent on the year before. In 2015-16,
�4,162,458 was raised. Only 40 provided data on parking fines, revealing
that they made �7,568 in 2016-17, up
from �6,385 the year before.
Hospital parking charges are a perennial bone of contention for the NHS.
Unions complain that their members
are being charged excessively to go to
work and Labour pledged to axe the
fees in the general election campaign.
Hospital parking in most of Scotland
and Wales is free, and government
guidance issued in October 2015 says
that English NHS organisations should
only charge what is ?reasonable for the
area?, and offer concessions for groups,
including disabled people, those with
frequent outpatient appointments, and
visitors to relatives who are gravely ill
or facing an extended hospital stay.
Lucy Schonegevel, public affairs
manager at Macmillan Cancer
Support, said: ?Frequent trips to the
hospital are unavoidable when you?ve
been diagnosed with cancer, or are
caring for someone who has. People are
having to travel to receive life-saving
treatment and public transport isn?t
always an option.?
The trust with the highest parking
income was Heart of England NHS
Foundation Trust, which operates in
the West Midlands. It made over
�8 million across the year. Frimley
Health NHS Foundation Trust in
Surrey was next, raising almost �million, including �5 million from staff.
However, some hospitals defended
their revenues, saying some or all of the
money was put back into patient care or
maintaining car parks and grounds, in
line with NHS funding rules. Others
claimed that their size and the fact that
they served busy neighbourhoods
meant they took more revenue.
Behind the story
A
15-year-old
girl was
reported
missing
and found
at the address of a
registered sex
offender along with
numerous other
children, all known to
social services and at
risk of sexual
exploitation (Fiona
Hamilton writes).
The children?s social
care services asked
for two strategy
meetings but the
Metropolitan Police
did not attend to
share information and
contribute to the
safety plans for those
at risk. There was no
record of any
discussion with the
management of the
residential unit where
the sex offender lived
to discuss wider
safeguarding issues,
even though the
investigating officer
had noted that action
needed to be taken to
prevent girls visiting
the unit.
The report found
recorded evidence of
members of the force
making inappropriate
comments in relation
to missing children,
such as: ?It?s what
they always do.?
There were cases of
no recorded
communication with
children?s social care
services when a child
was missing, even
when the child was
known to social care
services. Inquiries
made into missing
children assessed as
medium risk
appeared to be mostly
office-based.
Ancillary victims,
perpetrators, siblings
and family members
of affected children
were not always
named on the force?s
systems.
Cases of risk of
child sexual
exploitation on the
internet had
unnecessary delays
while they were
passed between
teams. In the interim,
vulnerable children
were not contacted.
The report also
found evidence of
some officers failing
to speak with children
who had been victims.
investigation? relating to possible
exploitation, there were others in
which officers failed to speak to child
victims of an offence. The Met
acknowledged it was not yet achieving
improvements across all areas.
A spokeswoman said: ?Keeping
London?s children and young people
safe is a priority. In response to the
findings of HMIC?s 2016 inspection, a
comprehensive plan was initiated to
improve our child protection services.
We recognise the urgency of improving
our services, but we know that delivering
real and sustainable improvements
will take time to achieve. Our improvement plans are kept under continual
review.?
The last of the quarterly reports will
be delivered next month. It is likely that
Ms Rudd will order further regular
reports if the Met has not substantially
improved.
Mr Davis in advance. However, in his
present role Mr Robbins does not
report to Mr Davis and is answerable
only to Mrs May, who herself took over
the final stage of the Brexit negotiations with Jean-Claude Juncker, the
European Commission president.
Informal discussions are due to start
next month on the structure of the
negotiations on Britain?s relationship
with the EU after Brexit. There is
pressure to drop the four-weekly
cycle of negotiations in favour of rolling
talks.
Sources in London and Brussels said
that Mr Davis would still have an
important role to play in relaying
government messages directly to the
European
Commission.
?They
managed to say things to each other in
quite a frank manner,? one European
official said. ?From our point of view
that was useful.?
A Dexeu spokeswoman said: ?This
characterisation of the negotiations
is wholly and wilfully inaccurate.
The Brexit secretary meets with his
counterpart, Michel Barnier, at regular
intervals to oversee the negotiations.
?In November they agreed their
officials would maintain a constant
dialogue, so it should be of no surprise
that senior British civil servants
press the UK?s case as set by the prime
minister and Brexit secretary.?
Leading article, page 35
Please note, some sections of The Times are
available only in the United Kingdom and Ireland
1
13
30
0
2
3
Health chiefs make a record
�4m from hospital parking
5
2
4
14
Cold, with the risk of a few wintry
showers in the north, but mainly
dry elsewhere. Full forecast, page 60
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continued from page 1
Davis sidelined in Brexit talks
negotiations, but this has been contradicted by several sources. One told The
Times: ?The dynamics changed when
Oli went to the Cabinet Office,? adding:
?Yes, he can talk directly to Barnier.?
Another source added that although
much of the detailed work was
conducted between Mr Robbins and
Ms Weyand, informal talks were going
on involving Mr Barnier. ?He is just
down the corridor, so of course he is
involved as well.?
A Whitehall source said that any
discussions Mr Robbins had with Mr
Barnier would have to be cleared with
Politics, pages 16-17
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
3
2G M
News
Beware archaeologists bearing gifts
GIOVANNI BATTISTA TIEPOLO/GETTY
Richard Spencer Istanbul
The hieroglyphs seem to solve some of
the great mysteries of the ancient
world. Who were the Trojans defeated
by Homer?s Greek heroes? Were they
connected to the Sea Peoples, the
unknown warriors who ravaged the
shores of the Mediterranean in the 13th
and 12th centuries BC? ?The enemy?s
ships came; my cities were burned, and
they did evil things in my country,? a
writer in what is now Syria mourned.
But at the same time they pose a third
question: are they too good to be true?
When James Mellaart, one of the
most celebrated but controversial British archaeologists of the past century,
died five years ago, researchers were
stunned to find a 100ft-long series of
hieroglyphs among his papers that
seemed to revolutionise our understanding of Homer?s Mediterranean.
The hieroglyphs appeared to piece
together scattered accounts of the
James Mellaart
was an eccentric
whose reputation
was damaged
by controversy
fabled Sea Peoples, give an explanation
for the wars that seemed to ravage the
region and provided hints as to the
origin of the myth of Troy.
Many in the field, though, now speculate that they might themselves be
ojan Horse,
an academic Trojan
ffects of
left among the effects
the archaeologistt to
ove
posthumously prove
a pet theory.
The
inscriptions are in the
language of the
ancient Luwian
people
and
were supposedly copied from
tablets found by
a French archaeh
ologist in the 19th
ey,
century in Turkey,
lt by
subsequently built
villagers into the foundations of a mosque..
es the copies were
Over the decades
themselves copied, and forgotten, until
? when Mellaart, 86, died in 2012 ?
they were found by his son.
They have now been translated by a
Dutch scholar, Fred Woudhuizen, one
of the handful of academics worldwide
who can read Luwian, and published in
the journal of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society.
The Luwian people inhabited what is
The h
hieroglyphs, apparently copied from ancient tablets, were thought to solve mysteries of the ancient world, including myths of the Trojan War
no
now
western
Tu
Turkey,
includin the ancient
ing
c
city
popularly
b
believed
to be
T
Troy.
The
in
inscriptions
desc
scribe
the 12thcen
century
BC reign
of a King Kupantakurun
kuruntas,
and the
ex
naval exploits
of Prince
T
Muksus. That
coincides
with the perio
period said by more
romantic scholars to be a possible
date for the Trojan War.
Could this be an account of the ?Sea
Peoples?, recorded on the walls of
Egyptian temples plundering cities?
Could the Trojan war recorded by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey be a
folk memory of a retaliatory raid by the
Greeks against the Luwian people?
So perfectly does the inscription fit
that Mark Weeden, an expert at the
Learned disputes
6 Sir Brian Vickers, of
the University of
London, accused Gary
Taylor, editor of The
New Oxford
Shakespeare, of causing
?a crisis for our
discipline? by using
computer-aided
research to suggest that
Christopher Marlowe
wrote passages in
William Shakespeare?s
The Taming of the
Shrew and all three
parts of the Henry VI
series.
the ambassador to the
UK, said his comments
were ?historically poorly
grounded?.
6 John Lennon, from
Glasgow Caledonian
University, accused Italy
of romanticising its
fascist past. He claimed
tourist sites portrayed
Mussolini as a hero.
Pasquale Terracciano,
6 Black American
academics criticised the
?unfortunate? use of the
Swing Low, Sweet
Chariot song by English
rugby fans in March. Its
origins are rooted in
southern US slavery.
School of Oriental and African Studies,
says he prefers to think of it as a ?fantasy?. ?I think forgery is too grand a
word,? he told The Times. He also says
the writing contains errors that conform to misreadings of Luwian by early
translators in the 1950s and 60s.
Mellaart?s archives are exactly where
such a record might be found. The son
of an art dealer, he achieved fame in the
1960s by discovering the remains of the
world?s
earliest
settlement
at
Catalhoyuk in central Turkey, dating
back to before 7,000BC. However, he
was also an eccentric, whose reputation
was severely damaged by controversy.
He later published drawings of wall
paintings he said he found in Catalhoyuk, which disintegrated into dust when
exposed to light. His insistence that
they were genuine, despite their originals having been seen by no one other
than himself, were a precursor to the
current academic row. For it turns out
that no other living scholar has seen,
nor any other dead scholar left behind,
any independently verifiable copies of
the original Luwian inscription. Neither are there contemporary accounts
of their being found.
So are they real? Alan Mellaart, who
found the hieroglyphs, said while he
was himself no expert, he found it hard
to believe his father spent his retirement years composing Luwian inscriptions. ?I know my father was clever, and
I can testify that I saw him drawing
hundreds of maps, but I never saw him
writing Luwian. It seems unbelievable.?
US fugitive devises app to shield whistleblowers from spies
Mark Bridge Technology Correspondent
If anyone has good reason to be worried
about their safety it is Edward Snowden, exiled in a secret Moscow location
since 2013 and one of the world?s most
wanted men.
To help anyone else in fear of snatch
squads, the whistleblower has created a
counter-surveillance app to prevent
?the worst kind of people from silencing
citizens without getting caught?.
The Haven app was designed by Mr
Snowden, 34, and colleagues to assist
?people at risk of forced disappearance?. It is available at the Android store
for anyone with security concerns.
Mr Snowden, a former CIA operative, leaked thousands of classified
documents from the US National
Security Agency. He claims that he has
used the app for his own protection
while travelling. Unlike apps that check
your phone for ?spyware?, Haven is
designed to monitor the device?s surroundings for real-world intruders.
Users install it on a spare handset
that they can leave as a monitoring
device near any sensitive information.
Its creators say it addresses the problem of the ?evil maid? scenario, in which
it is difficult to prevent those with
access to your PC from viewing files.
Micah Lee, a board member of the
Freedom of the Press Foundation, of
which Mr Snowden is director, said:
?Imagine you are a journalist in a hostile country and you are worried about
security services breaking into your
room and riffling through your belong-
ings and computer. Haven detects
changes in the environment using the
sensors in a typical smartphone, such
as the camera, microphone, gyroscope,
ambient light and USB power, to alert
you if anyone enters your space or
attempts to tamper with your devices.?
The app sends encrypted alerts to
your primary phone over Signal, the
messaging app. Users can monitor
activity remotely using the anonymous
Tor dark-web browser.
Mr Snowden acknowledges that the
app cannot prevent intruders
from harming someone. He
said, however, that
Edward Snowden
has been in hiding in
Moscow since 2013
knowledge of the app?s existence would
give hostile agents pause for thought.
?If you?re secret police making people
disappear, Haven changes the calculus
of risk you have to go through,? he told
Wired, the US technology magazine. ?You
have to worry that
every cell phone
m
might
be a witness.?
Some commentators
h
have
expressed concerns about Mr Snowden?s ties to Russia. One
reader wrote on
The
Intercept
news website, in
response to its
coverage: ?So a
guy completely
controlled by Vladimir Putin has
developed software to protect your
computer. Have you imbeciles learnt
nothing from Kaspersky??
Kaspersky Lab makes antivirus
software that has been banned for use
by US federal agencies over concerns
about alleged ties with Russian
security services. Kaspersky denies the
allegations.
In Wired?s tests, the app detected and
alerted reporters to any attempts to
approach a laptop on an office desk,
reliably sending photos of snoopers
over Signal. They said, however, that
the app?s detection was ?hairtriggered?, sending a large number of
alerts for non-events. The developers
said that they were still fine-tuning the
controls.
4
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Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
News
CHESTER ZOO
No. 2119
� PUZZLER MEDIA
Suko�
Place the numbers 1 to 9 in the
spaces so that the number in each
circle is equal to the sum of the four
surrounding spaces, and each colour
total is correct
Solution and more puzzles
MindGames in Times2
Budget airline criticised
A budget airline has been
criticised by the Civil Aviation
Authority for refusing to sign up
to a complaints handling service.
Jet2 is the only one of the top ten
UK airlines not to join the
Alternative Dispute Resolution
service, which resolved more
than 10,000 passenger complaints
in its first year of operation. The
authority said it was ?extremely
disappointing? that Jet2, Aer
Lingus and Emirates had failed
to sign up. Jet2 did not respond
to a request for a comment.
Wild at heart Chester Zoo has chronicled its year in pictures, with the star players including Goshi, a jaguar, Hazina, an eastern black rhino, and Solo, a Malayan tapir
Pupils with unconditional
offers perform much worse
Rosemary Bennett Education Editor
A level students are significantly more
likely to fall short of their predicted
grades if they have received an unconditional offer of a university place.
A study from UCAS, the university
admissions service, shows that in 2015
pupils with such offers were 23 per cent
more likely to miss their predicted level
by two or more grades compared with
those with conditional offers. It is evidence that pupils who are not motivated by having to achieve certain grades
put less effort into their exams.
The underperformance has longterm consequences for students who
will have to take their grades with them
throughout their careers: graduate
employers still set much store by what
is the last nationwide public exam
young people take.
The Times revealed this year that
there has been a 40 per cent rise in the
offers, allowing prospective students to
take up a place at university irrespective of the grades they achieve. There
were 51,615 in 2015-16 ? more than
5 per cent of all offers ? compared with
36,825 the year before and 2,985 in
2013. Universities have increased the
number to maximise tuition fee revenue. In many cases, the unconditional
offer applies only if the student accepts
the place as their firm offer. Some
universities also offer these students
the first choice of accommodation to
get them to sign up.
In the past a few thousand top-performing students were given offers like
this, but increasingly mediocre students are receiving them, with as many
going to those on course for three Bs as
those expecting straight As. The research also showed that unconditional
offers are more likely to be made for
degree courses that are less academically challenging or cheap to teach.
Media studies and journalism had
the highest proportion of unconditional offers with 8.9 per of applicants
receiving one. This was followed by
technology subjects, creative arts and
computer science. In subjects such as
maths, less than 2 per cent of offers are
unconditional.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher
Education Policy Institute think tank,
said the offers were a false economy.
?Any university that doles out loads
of unconditional offers simply because
it saw the pound signs in students? eyes
and wanted to make a quick buck would
be making a bad mistake,? he said. ?This
is because, when you get a poor fit
between applicants and places, the students end up dissatisfied and often drop
out. When that happens, the institution
loses out in terms of reputation and
money.?
James Frith, a Labour member of the
Commons education committee, said it
was a worrying trend. ?This trading on
offers for commercial reasons will have
longer term consequences. And the
government has a tin ear to it,? he said.
Teenagers have taken to Twitter in
recent weeks to report their surprise at
how many unconditional offers they
were getting. Some said all five universties they applied to had made them.
Graduate salaries fall by more than 12%
Nicola Woolcock
Education Correspondent
Graduate starting salaries have fallen
faster than for any other type of jobs
this year.
While overall pay has improved annually it fell by more than 12 per cent for
graduate roles. The average wage for a
graduate job is �,814, according to
Adzuna, a job advert search engine.
Jobs in administration had the big-
gest salary increases, rising by 26.7 per
cent to an average of �,551. Overall,
salaries were up by 1.2 per cent from
November 2016 to November this year,
to �,598, and total vacancies available
fell by 1.3 per cent. London had one of
the biggest regional improvements, an
increase of 2.2 per cent to �,457.
Adzuna said that the increase in new
salaries had yet to be translated into pay
rises for existing staff.
Scotland has experienced the poor-
est annual salary shift year on year,
with average advertised wages in November 2017 of �,630, 1.6 per cent
lower than the year before. One
contributing factor was the rising risk of
insolvency north of the border, the
report said.
Adzuna also said that issues around
Brexit could be contributing to the
decrease in graduate salaries, particularly if financial services firms decided
to relocate outside Britain.
UK bosses
are richest
in Europe
Harry Wilson City Editor
The bosses of Britain?s biggest companies have topped Europe?s pay league,
earning more compared with their
employees than those anywhere else
on the continent.
Research by Vlerick Business School
in Belgium found that FTSE 100 chief
executives took home pay packages
worth 94 times those of their average
staff member, despite government attempts to crackdown on ballooning
corporate compensation. The school?s
analysis, reported by the Financial
Times, found that top French and
German company chiefs were the only
ones who came close to their British
peers, earning multiples of 91 and 89
times their average worker.
In recent years there has been increased criticism of income inequality
between a tiny corporate elite and ordinary staff.
This month, the Investment Association opened for the first time a public
register naming and shaming companies that have been on the receiving
end of votes where more than a fifth of
shareholders have voted against proposals, including for executive pay.
Some of the country?s largest companies were listed on the section dealing
with corporate pay revolts, including
Astrazeneca, the pharmaceutical company, Burberry, the fashion house, and
WPP, the advertising agency.
Theresa May has warned that big
payouts to chief executives could hurt
?the social fabric? of the country.
Vlerick based its research on figures
from 2016 and said that the average
British FTSE 100 boss earned ?4.9 million (�35 million) in 2016, a rise of
11 per cent on 2015.
Illegal hunt inquiries
North Wales police are
investigating claims of an illegal
Boxing Day hunt after officers
responding to reports of a pack of
dogs on the loose near the A55 in
Anglesey found a dead fox. In
Chesire, police were alerted to an
illegal hunt in Allostock, near
Knutsford, while Suffolk officers
intervened in clashes between
members of the Great Thurlow
hunt and observers.
MP?s relation hit by car
The daughter-in-law
of Dame Margaret
Hodge, the Labour
MP, died in a road
traffic collision, an
inquest found.
Rachel Watson, 43, left, was hit
by a police community support
officer?s car when she was out for
a run in Leeds in February. She
may not have realised how fast
cars were going, the coroner said.
Bizarre animal rescues
The RSPCA has shared its most
unusual animal rescues of the
year, from a fox with its head
wedged between two tombstones
to a bat stuck in a plug hole.
Other rescues carried out by the
charity included a fat hedgehog
trapped in a metal grate, a frog in
a lavatory, a seal pup which
became lodged under heavy rocks
and a starling which had its head
stuck in a manhole cover.
A band of brothers
The story has emerged of six
brothers who fought in the
Second World War and survived.
The Higham brothers, born in
Wigan, served in the Royal
Signals, RAF and Marines.
Douglas Higham helped to
rescue King Peter of Yugoslavia
from Dubrovnik. Douglas?s son
John, 73, said the six ?were quiet
men who did not mention the
war much?.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
5
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SWNS
Woman crippled by the
bends sues dive resort
A
British
woman says
she has been
left with no
feeling from
the waist down after
suffering decompression
illness brought on by a
series of dives at a
five-star holiday resort
in Indonesia (Neil
Johnston writes).
Amy Stone, 28, a
marathon runner from
Leatherhead, Surrey,
suffered permanent
spinal damage and
became temporarily
paralysed after
experiencing the bends,
caused when nitrogen
absorbed from breathing
compressed air remains
in the body. She has
learnt to walk again
since the trip in April
2015 but cannot feel
anything or run. She is
Academics accused
of ?stirring up mob?
in free speech row
Dominic Kennedy
An academic at the University of Oxford has accused colleagues of encouraging ?online mobbing? and public
shaming, in the continuing row over
free speech.
Alexander Morrison is the first
prominent Oxford scholar to voice his
support for Nigel Biggar?s controversial
call for a reappraisal of colonialism. Dr
Morrison is from the faculty of history,
where a mass letter condemning Professor Biggar originated.
The dispute has embittered relations
among the gowns. Professor Biggar
sparked debate with an article in November in The Times headlined ?Don?t
feel guilty about our colonial history?.
He advocated a balanced appraisal of
Britain?s ?morally mixed? colonial past,
pointing to pride in the Royal Navy?s
suppression of the Atlantic slave trade
alongside shame at the massacre by
British soldiers of unarmed demonstrators at Amritsar in 1919.
Professor Biggar, regius professor of
moral and pastoral theology, is leading
a five-year project called Ethics and
Empire. Nearly 60 Oxford academics,
mostly historians, have argued in an
open letter that the project ?asks the
wrong questions? and claimed the professor?s approach was too polemical
and simplistic to be taken seriously.
In a letter to The Times today, Dr
Morrison, a fellow and tutor in history
at New College, praised Professor Biggar as a scholar of distinction and integrity whose research deserved a scholarly engagement which he found absent
from the open letter. ?They are dismissing out of hand and seeking to sabotage
a research project in a discipline which
is not their own before it has even begun,? Dr Morrison wrote. ?Hostile open
letters of this kind are not the way to
deal with academic disagreement: they
are deeply corrosive of normal academic exchange, and simply encourage
more of the online mobbing, public
shaming and political polarisation
which have sadly characterised this debate from the outset.?
Dr Morrison, who specialises in the
history of the Russian empire in central
Asia, wrote personally to Professor Biggar to disassociate himself from the
open letter and make clear it was not
the view of everyone in the faculty.
The open letter was organised by
James McDougall, a tutor at Trinity
College. At least one of the signatories
of the letter was involved in the Rhodes
Must Fall campaign, which failed to
persuade Oriel College to remove a
statue of Cecil Rhodes, the British imperialist who founded Rhodesia.
Professor Biggar, 62, a canon of
Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, has
endured harsh criticism from academics online. Priyamvada Gopal of the
faculty of English at Cambridge University accused him of being a racist,
dishonest apologist for the Empire.
The Oxford University Africa
Society suggested he was a genocide
denier who was attempting ?colonial
apologism, yearning and re-justification through the pursuit of dishonest
scholarship?.
Oxford has supported Professor Biggar?s right to consider the historical
context of the British Empire and said
he was entirely suitable to lead the
ethics and empire project.
Jo Johnson, the universities minister,
said this week that ?universities should
be places that open minds, not close
them, where ideas can be freely challenged?.
Letters, page 34
Kiss of life saves soggy moggy
A cat has survived a 30-minute washing
machine cycle after being given mouth
to mouth resuscitation by his distraught owner.
Tiggy, a nine-month-old domestic
shorthair, was discovered in the appliance?s drum at his home in Bilston,
West Midlands, by Rae Sutton, 72. ?He
was dead when I pulled him out,? she
said. ?I was hysterical, I ran outside
screaming before sitting down on the
sofa with him in my arms.
?Then I saw his mouth drop open and
I began to give him mouth-to-mouth,
gently, while massaging his stomach. It
went on for about 20 minutes. Then, all
of a sudden, his stomach started going
up and down. I went mad and called up
John, my husband, and we went to the
vets.?
Staff at Bilston Veterinary Clinic
treated Tiggy with oxygen and the
couple were able to take him home two
hours later. Steve Mullender, the clinic?s
owner, hailed the cat?s survival as ?a
miracle?. Mrs Sutton said: ?He?s
grounded from now on. I?m not letting
him out of my sight again.?
Amy Stone, a former
marathon runner, now has
no feeling below the waist.
Far left: with her boyfriend,
Richard, on an earlier dive
suing Oceans 5 Dive
Resort for �,000,
claiming instructors did
not notice the symptoms
of the illness and let her
continue diving. ?It was
supposed to be the trip
of a lifetime,? she said.
Oceans 5 said it could
not comment because
the case was continuing
but said ?our side of the
story is very different
from Amy?s?.
6
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Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
News
Child charities call
for YouTube curbs
Alexi Mostrous Head of Investigations
Children?s charities called for a social
media crackdown yesterday after an
investigation by The Times revealed
that sexual predators used YouTube as
a ?shop window? for abused youngsters.
The NSPCC said that Google, the
owner of YouTube, should be compelled to employ ?an army? of child
safety moderators.
The inquiry found that its video
platform allowed paedophiles to
publish videos of young girls before
offering to exchange more explicit
The Times revealed paedophiles are
posting clips with their email address
imagery on encrypted chat applications.
The Children?s Society said that the
revelations ?underline the urgent need
for much tighter controls on content on
YouTube and other social media?.
In one case, a Brazilian paedophile
posted a dozen short videos showing
children standing silently, licking their
lips or dancing. One showed a masked
child saying: ?Hey guys I got new
underwear.? Each video was marked
with the paedophile?s email address.
When a reporter made contact, the
man boasted that he had 315 gigabytes
of material of ?naked? children.
Another person calling himself
Horny Pastor, created a YouTube
channel despite having a username
that had been flagged to US and
Canadian child-abuse officials. In his
profile section he invited viewers to
swap explicit content on an encrypted
chat application.
Rhiannon Sawyer, a manager at the
Children?s Society, said: ?It?s essential
that YouTube closes loopholes that
may enable sex offenders to share and
promote indecent images or simply to
open another account once they?ve
b
been shut down. Action must be taken
to identify and safeguard the children
involved, no matter where they are in
the world. Social media companies also
need to have better processes and
mechanisms in place to identify individuals who distribute these images
and work with law enforcement agencies to bring them to justice.?
Most of the channels were shut down
only after The Times alerted YouTube.
The internet company said: ?Content
that endangers children is abhorrent
and we never want it on YouTube. We
have clear policies against videos which
endanger children and we enforce
them aggressively.? It said it had
removed more than 150,000 videos in
recent weeks. YouTube flagged the
channels identified by The Times to the
US reporting centre for child abuse.
JONATHAN BRADY/PA
Gambling-style
Facebook apps
used by young
Nadeem Badshah
Royal salute Historical interpreters playing Richard III and Anne Beaumont, a
lady of the court, at the Tower of London in an event set during Christmas 1484
Gambling-style apps which target
young people are being offered on
Facebook without any checks on age.
Scientific Games, a supplier of fixedodds betting terminals, provides ?social
games?. One app features characters
from The Flintstones while another is
themed around the Rapunzel fairytale.
One Christmas feature in Jackpot
Party Casino Slots, a range of gambling-themed apps made by Scientific
Games, is called Toys for Tots.
The Jackpot Party Casino Slots app,
available via Facebook, is not classed as
a gambling product as money is not
won or lost. Users are invited to buy
?coins? to use in casino-style games.
A disclaimer says the game is aimed
at people over 21, but no age verification
is required, according The Guardian.
A report by the Gambling Commission this week highlighted the risk of
social games. The regulator found that
children who played were more likely
to bet money on adult products.
Tom Watson, Labour?s deputy leader
who has launched a review of gambling
policy, told the newspaper: ?Games designed to get children in the habit of
gambling are being marketed. The
company that makes these products is
cynically targeting young people, some
of whom are at risk of developing gambling addictions later in life.?
Scientific Games and Facebook have
both yet to comment on the claims.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
7
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BEN BIRCHALL/PA
While much of the country ground to a halt, nothing was going to keep this postman from his delivery in the Cotswolds village of Broadway. Central areas were among the worst affected by the wintry conditions
Thousands left freezing in the dark
Will Humphries
Large parts of the country endured a
day of travel misery and power outages
as rain, sleet and snow caused treacherous conditions on some of the busiest
roads, railways and air terminals.
Thousands of households across
England were facing a second night
without power in sub-zero temperatures yesterday as engineers worked to
restore supplies.
The heavy rain and snowfall left
more than 30,000 homes across
Exmoor, South Wales, the Cotswolds
and the Midlands without electricity.
Western Power Distribution said
that about 4,000 homes were still without power in the Midlands, but that
more than 25,000 customers had their
supply restored in southwest England
and Wales after blackouts.
Scottish and Southern Electricity
Networks said that there were about
5,500 customers without power across
Hampshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire, as
well as areas of Oxfordshire, with
power restored to about 12,500 properties.
Some of the country?s busiest motorways and roads were made impassable.
Drivers in the East Midlands were at
a standstill for more than seven hours
in huge tailbacks on the A14.
A lorry driver posted a picture on
Twitter yesterday morning of his
vehicle stuck in deep snow with the
message: ?Well it?s stopped snowing on
the A14 . . . been here 5 hours and snow
is so bad nothing is moving any time
soon, need a Land Rover.?
The RAC, the breakdown service,
said that it had a 20 per cent rise in calls
compared with this time last year, including a dozen about a pothole created
by the freezing conditions, which damaged vehicles on a section of the M25.
A lorry crash closed the southbound
M1 in Leicestershire and a HGV jackknifed in heavy snow on the M5 at junc-
Three-day forecast
Today
A frosty start with some
ice and freezing fog.
Dry and sunny later
Tomorrow
A cold start turning
wet and windy
Saturday
Remaining windy
with rain at times
-1 to 4C
ICE
-2 to 5C
3 to 9C
tion 11a in Gloucestershire. Another
lorry went over on the A34 northbound
at Chilton in Oxfordshire. Two lanes of
the M4 westbound carriageway were
shut at Hungerford, Berkshire, after an
accident.
An ambulance was left on its side in
one of two crashes that closed the A30
Vehicles were stranded on the A14 at
Northamptonshire for several hours
eastbound carriageway in Cornwall.
Pete Williams of the RAC said its
staff expected to attend more than
9,000 breakdowns by the end of yesterday, with a ?significant increase in
pothole-related damage? such as
punctures, wheel damage, steering and
suspension problems. ?The toxic com-
bination of high water levels, ice and
snow is making many road surfaces
crumble, causing potholes to open up,?
he added.
Flat and exhausted batteries were
another big cause of breakdowns with
drivers being unable to start their engines as the icy and damp conditions
played havoc with the electrics.
?Many drivers who haven?t used their
car for several days over Christmas are
finding that it doesn?t have the charge
to turn over the engine and they are left
stuck on the drive or in the street,? Mr
Williams said.
There were similar stories of travel
disruption, cancellations and delays at
railway and air terminals, with Stansted
in Essex twice closing its runway
because of ice. Rail passengers across
Britain faced disruption with problems
reported around London, Oxford,
Edinburgh, Warwickshire, Hampshire
and Merseyside.
Full forecast, page 60
Oxford professor killed in pile-up Exercise prescribed to
Nadeem Badshah
One of two men killed in a motorway
pile-up on Saturday was an eminent
Oxford University history professor
due to become the next provost of Oriel
College.
Mark Whittow, a historian and
archaeologist, died with a 29-year-old
man from Warwickshire in the collision
involving up to five cars on the M40 in
Oxfordshire.
Dr Whittow, 60, was a lecturer in
Byzantine studies, a fellow of Corpus
Christi College, senior proctor of
Oxford University in 2016-17 and lectured in history at Oriel. He had been
due to take up his new role in August
next year and his wife, Helen, who is a
practising QC and deputy High Court
judge, was set to join him at Oriel.
Colleagues described him as ?a warm
and loyal friend? with a passion for
teaching. Martin Conway, chairman of
the history faculty, said: ?The entire
Oxford community has been left deeply saddened by Mark?s tragic death.
Mark was an enormous influence on
history in Oxford where his energy and
commitment to teaching, research and
to the sense of an intellectual community was irrepressible.?
The Bodleian History Faculty Library posted: ?Desperately sad news of
the untimely passing of warm, witty,
humane scholar Mark Whittow. The
place will be that much sadder and
poorer for his loss.?
The professor joined Corpus Christi
in 2009 having been a fellow and lecMark Whittow was
due to become
the new provost
of Oriel College
turer at St Peter?s College since 1998. As
an archaeologist he worked in Turkey
and Jordan, running a field project surveying Byzantine castles in Turkey
through the 1990s.
Thames Valley police are appealing
for footage from motorists near the
scene on the M40 northbound between
junctions 10 and 11 just before 11.40pm.
One man was taken to hospital with
serious leg injuries and three people
were treated for minor injuries.
6 A police officer killed in a crash on
Christmas Day in which a woman also
died was a long-standing officer with
two children. PC Dave Fields, 45, who
was attending an ?immediate incident?
in a marked police car, died at the scene
on the A57 in Sheffield. Lorraine
Stephenson, 61, a passenger in another
vehicle, died in hospital. The driver of
that car was believed to be Mrs
Stephenson?s husband, Kevin, 63. He
remains in a serious condition.
slow down memory loss
Tom Whipple Science Editor
If you are losing your memory, then it
could be time to get on the treadmill.
Doctors have recommended that
elderly people suffering from mild cognitive impairment take up exercise to
keep their mind fit as well as their body.
There is growing evidence that the
benefits of a workout extend to the
brain, and now the American Academy
of Neurology has updated its guidelines
to take this into account. In the future,
it said that patients experiencing the
early signs of cognitive impairment
should be told to exercise twice a week.
?Regular physical exercise has long
been shown to have heart health benefits, and now we can say exercise also
may help improve memory for people
with mild cognitive impairment,? said
Ronald Petersen, from the Mayo Clinic
Study of Aging. ?What?s good for your
heart can be good for your brain.?
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is
classified as problems with thinking
and memory that are greater than
those expected with normal ageing, but
not as extreme as dementia. It may
however progress to dementia, which is
why doctors think it should be treated
early. About 6 per cent of people in their
60s have MCI.
The NHS does not explicitly state
exercise can help stave off cognitive decline. The change in the US guidelines
was reported in the journal Neurology
and was implemented after scientists
considered all previous studies into
MCI and exercise. Dr Petersen added:
?Early action may keep memory problems from getting worse.?
8
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Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
News
Half of public didn?t see a
bobby on the beat in 2017
Richard Ford Home Correspondent
Nearly 50 per cent of people in England
and Wales had not seen a uniformed
police or community support officer
patrolling on foot in the past year, according to a survey.
A growing proportion of the public
believed that the standard of service
they received from police had got
worse, with most feeling that the presence of a uniformed officer locally was
important. Inspectors of constabulary
have previously expressed concern
about the erosion of neighbourhood
policing, particulary as forces face cuts
to budgets and numbers of officers.
More than four fifths of respondents
said it was important to have a uniformed police presence on the street
but only 17 per cent believed that it
happened near them, Ipsos MORI
found. The proportion who said they
had not seen a uniformed police officer
in their area rose to 44 per cent this
year, up from 41 per cent in 2016 and
36 per cent in 2015. The proportion saying the service had deteriorated rose to
25 per cent, up from 20 per cent last
year and 18 per cent in 2015.
The survey of 12,662 over-16s was
carried out online between July 21 and
August 15 for HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. A
report accompanying the findings said
that sentiment on visible policing ?can
be strong and have a significant bearing
on broader attitudes to policing?.
Overall public satisfaction with
police was stable at about 53 per cent
and there had been increased confidence in their handling of terror attacks
after incidents in London and Manchester, with about 55 per cent of the
JOEL GOODMAN/LNP
public fairly or very confident in forces?
ability to deal with terror, a rise of 9 percentage points on last year. The main
responsibilities for policing were identified as responding in person to emergencies, tackling crime and countering
terrorism and extremism.
Matt Parr, an inspector of constabulary, said: ?It is encouraging to see that
the public?s confidence in the police to
protect them against terrorism has
increased markedly.?
A Home Office spokesman said: ?Effective local policing has always been
about more than just officers? visibility
? never more so than now, with crime
increasingly taking place behind closed
doors and online. We recognise that demands on police are changing, which is
why we have announced a comprehensive settlement to increase police funding by up to �0 million next year.?
Heath inquiry chief to leave police force
Nadeem Badshah
The police chief who led the investigation into paedophile claims against
Sir Edward Heath is to be allowed to retire with a full pension despite being
under investigation for misconduct.
Detective Superintendent Sean
Memory will leave Wiltshire police in
the new year after being signed off sick
in January. He will receive �,000 a
year and a lump sum of �0,000.
Mr Memory was being investigated
over allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a woman, according to
The Daily Telegraph. A force spokesman
said that he had been allowed to retire
under the Police Conduct Regulations.
Mr Memory launched the �5 million inquiry standing outside the
former Conservative prime minister?s
home in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 2015,
with an appeal for child sex abuse victims to come forward.
Operation Conifer was described by
Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, the
former director of public prosecutions,
as a ?tragicomedy of incompetence?
after finding no evidence that Heath,
who died in 2005, had abused children.
Wigan peers These revellers had an absolutely fabulous time as Patsy and Edina,
enjoying a Boxing Night fancy dress tradition in the bars and nightclubs of Wigan
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
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Robots will put millions out of work and worsen gender inequality
Oliver Wright Policy Editor
Up to half of all jobs in Britain are
vulnerable to a revolution in robotic
technology and artificial intelligence
that threatens to replace human workers with machines, a think tank has said.
A report from the Institute for Public
Policy Research (IPPR) suggests that
new technology could wipe out jobs
generating earnings of �0 billion a
year ? a third of the UK total. Some
parts of the country would be particu-
larly badly affected, with one in two
jobs in the North East and Northern
Ireland at high risk of automation.
Those in London are the least likely to
be replaced by computers or machines,
according to the report.
The authors called for a co-ordinated
government response to the economic
challenge, with the establishment of a
regulator to oversee the ?ethical use of
robotics and artificial intelligence?.
Jeremy Corbyn used his Labour
conference speech last year to call for
?common-good intervention? by the
state to ensure that workers did not lose
out to automation. Ministers have
spoken of creating ?jobs of the future?
to replace those being lost to machines.
The IPPR said that increasing
automation had the potential to deliver
a powerful boost to UK business,
bringing ?economic plenty? ? but it
warned that unless the change was
properly managed the benefits could be
?narrowly? concentrated in the hands
of investors and small numbers of
highly skilled workers while the rest
lost out.
However, the think tank rejected the
idea that the country was heading for a
?post-human? economy, arguing that
most jobs were likely to be reallocated
rather than eliminated. Carys Roberts,
one of the authors, said: ?Some people
will get a pay rise while others are
trapped in low-pay, low-productivity
sectors. To avoid inequality rising, the
government should look at ways to
spread capital ownership and make
sure everyone benefits from increased
automation.?
Among those industries found to
have the highest probability of automation were agriculture, transport,
food processing and administration.
Jobs in education, information and
communication were seen as the safest.
The researchers found that jobs
held by women were slightly more at
risk than those carried out by men,
suggesting that automation could
increase gender inequality.
PHILYEOMANS/BNPS
We caused
landslide for
SNP, claims
Facebook
Mark Bridge Technology Correspondent
Facebook?s intervention in the 2015
general election was responsible for
triggering a landslide for the Scottish
National Party, the company says.
In a ?success-story? post on its website, Facebook boasts that the SNP
?used a powerful combination of Facebook?s targeting and engagement tools
to mobilise its supporters and achieve
an overwhelming victory?.
After its side?s defeat in the independence referendum the previous year, the
party won 56 of the 59 Scottish seats it
contested. Facebook said: ?Nicola Sturgeon is now widely considered to be the
most powerful woman in the UK, and
the SNP is a significant opposition force
in Westminster.?
The company said that 1.24 million
people in Scotland, more than 40 per
cent of those active on Facebook, had
seen SNP campaign adverts on the
social network, with 416,000 reached
on election day. This cost an average of
1p per advert, according to Facebook.
The party used targeting to ?speak directly to specific demographics, such as
pensioners and women, on the subjects
that mattered most to them?. ?Campaigners across the political spectrum
now recognise that using Facebook,
and Facebook ads in particular, made a
demonstrable difference to the final
election result,? the company added.
Electoral Commission figures indicate that the SNP spent �466 on Facebook ads during the campaign, compared with �153 by Labour in Scotland
and �,502 by the Conservatives.
Facebook has a government and politics team that travels the world to help
clients to use its tools. The team is supposed to be politically neutral, but critics fear that it may get too close to particular sides in different campaigns.
Kirk Torrance, director of Industrial
New Media, partner consultants to the
SNP, was quoted by Facebook as saying
it was ?a permanent cylinder in the
SNP?s campaigning engine?.
However, a former Facebook employee who led its politics team in
Europe from 2011 until May last year,
said that it was ?not Facebook?s job to be
so close to any election campaign?. Elizabeth Linder told Bloomberg that she
decided to leave Facebook partly
because she grew uncomfortable with
what she saw as increased emphasis on
electioneering and campaigns.
George Galloway, the former
Respect MP and an opponent of Scottish independence, tweeted yesterday:
?Isn?t that . . . foreign interference??
The role of social media companies
in politics has come under scrutiny
after claims that fake news posted by
organisations linked to the Kremlin
influenced the US presidential election.
Pulp fiction Denise Watson has created a Victorian Christmas display at Uppark House in South Harting, dressing the mannequins in items made entirely of paper
Briton convicted over painkillers
is sent to notorious Egyptian jail
Bel Trew Beirut
A British woman sentenced to three
years in jail for taking painkillers into
Egypt has been moved to the tough
Qena prison, where her family fear that
she will not survive.
Laura Plummer, 33, was arrested at
Hurghada airport in October when she
was found with 290 tramadol tablets, a
prescription drug in Britain. The shop
assistant from Hull said that she did not
know they were banned in Egypt.
She claimed that she was bringing
them in for Omar Caboo, her 31-yearold Egyptian boyfriend who suffers
from back pain.
On Boxing Day a court in Safaga, a
Red Sea town 300 miles from Cairo,
sentenced Ms Plummer to three years
in jail for possession of an illegal substance.
Her family tried to visit her yesterday
morning at Safaga prison. However,
officials had already moved her to
Qena, 100 miles to the west, without
telling them.
Ms Plummer?s sister, Rachel, said:
?The conditions [in Qena] are disgusting. We are so worried about her. Who
will feed her? We don?t even know how
to get food to her now. We?ve been told
nothing.?
She said that their mother, Roberta
Laura Plummer
was found with
290 tramadol
tablets
Synclair, tried to deliver supplies to her
daughter at Qena prison but was not
allowed to enter. Inmates of Egypt?s
prisons have to rely on family visits for
clothes, food and medicines because
jail supplies are scarce.
Rachel Plummer said: ?My mum?s
not been given a chance to see her, to
give her clothes and food. We know she
will be in there with murderers and real
drug dealers. She is trying to get a visit
but whether she will be able to I don?t
know.?
Weakened by months in a crammed
jail cell, Ms Plummer fell to the ground
and sobbed when her verdict was
announced on Tuesday.
?She collapsed to the floor,? her sister
said. ?Her leg muscles are weak from
being sat in a cell for three months with
zero exercise. Laura just said, ?This can?t
be happening, I didn?t do anything
wrong.? ?
Ms Plummer is being held in the
women?s section of Qena prison, north
of Luxor. The jail is well known for its
crammed, windowless cells and filthy
toilets.
Mohamed Osman, her lawyer, said
that he was petitioning the Egyptian
officials to have her moved to Qanater
women?s prison near Cairo, where the
conditions are thought to be more comfortable.
Ms Plummer has been held in jail
since October and at one point faced
the death penalty. Her family said last
month that she was clueless about
Egyptian law and made no effort to
hide the painkillers, which are worth
less than � in Britain.
Jayne Synclair, 40, another sister, told
the South West News Service that the
Foreign Office had promised that Ms
Plummer would be held in Cairo, not
Qena. She said she feared that her
younger sister ?won?t survive a day? in
the prison, let alone three years.
?They have slyly taken her to where
the British Foreign Office told us she
would never be placed,? Ms Synclair
said.
Mr Osman said that he was hopeful
that his client would be acquitted by a
higher court on appeal. He added that
even under the present sentence she
would be eligible for release after a year.
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Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
News
SPORTS CLASSICS LONDON
NHS set to ban
all sugary drinks
from hospitals
Kat Lay Health Correspondent
Car with history The 1939 Alfa Romeo in which Mussolini and his mistress tried to flee Italy before they were shot in 1945
has gone on sale. A classic car dealership in Kensington says it is close to selling the 6C Sport Berlinetta for �5 million
Sugary drinks are likely to be banned
from sale on NHS premises after hospitals failed to embrace a voluntary
scheme to cut consumption.
Sweetened coffees, milkshakes and
sugary fizzy drinks would all be affected
by the ban, due to come in from July, as
the NHS tackles the obesity crisis and
tooth decay. Hospitals that failed to
comply could face financial penalties.
Simon Stevens, the chief executive of
NHS England, said: ?It?s important the
NHS practises what it preaches on
healthy food and drink. We want 2018
to be the year when the tasty, affordable
and easy option for patients, staff and
visitors is the healthy option.?
An NHS England consultation
begun in November last year found
widespread support for a ban on sugary
drinks in hospitals and clinics. Health
chiefs chose a voluntary scheme first
because there were concerns about
restricting consumer choice.
The aim was to reduce sales of sugary
drinks to 10 per cent or less of total
beverage sales. NHS bosses warned
that if it failed to get enough participants or show results, a full ban would
come into force from July 2018.
More than a third of NHS trusts have
yet to sign up for the scheme, with only
141 out of 232 taking part.
Yesterday the NHS said that hospitals and suppliers had been warned that
if they did not take action to reduce
sales of sugary drinks by the end of
March, a ban would be introduced.
In Britain 63 per cent of adults are
overweight and obesity is increasing
faster than in any other developed
nation, according to the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development. A recent study found that one
in four nurses was obese. The NHS considers sugary drinks to be any hot drink
with added sugar syrup, fizzy and nonfizzy drinks with five grams or more of
added sugar per 100ml, and milk-based
drinks with ten grams or more of added
sugar per 100ml. That means the ban
would affect more drinks than the government?s sugar tax, a levy on soft
drinks with more than five grams of
sugar per 100ml.
Suppliers taking part in the scheme
send NHS England quarterly data on
the total volume of drinks and total volume of sugary drinks sold on each of
their sites. The NHS said it could not
provide details of what the data showed
because it was commercially sensitive.
The ban would be brought in through
the NHS?s Standard Contract, meaning
trusts could face financial penalties, set
locally, if they failed to implement it
properly. Hospital trusts would not be
allowed to sign new contracts or leases,
or extend existing arrangements, unless they implemented the ban.
NHS England said: ?Not selling
sugar-sweetened beverages will simply
become a non-negotiable part of doing
business with the NHS for drinks suppliers.?
Some trusts have gone further than
required and put their own bans in
place. A number of private companies
with stores in hospitals have also signed
up to the voluntary scheme, including
WH Smith, Marks & Spencer, Greggs
and the Royal Voluntary Service.
Online service Third of care
doubles sexual homes are not
infection tests good enough
Kat Lay
Nadeem Badshah
People are twice as likely to get tested
for sexually transmitted infections if
they have the option of using an internet-based service, a study has found.
Experts said it showed the value to
public health of embracing technology
to overcome some of the stigma around
diseases such as HIV, chlamydia and
gonorrhoea. More than 2,000 people in
south London, aged between 16 and 30,
were sent text messages either offering
e-testing or detailing where they could
find face-to-face clinics. Of those offered electronic tests, via SH:24, a
digital sexual health service, 50 per cent
chose to be tested. In the other group
only 27 per cent took up the offer.
The group given details of SH:24 was
sent home-testing kits in the post. The
patients received their results via text
message or telephone and were given
online information about sexual health.
The study, published in PLOS Medicine, was led by the London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and
King?s College London.
Dr Paula Baraitser, a joint senior investigator on the study from King?s,
said both online and face-to-face services needed to be available.
The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare has said it is concerned
about cuts to sexual health services by
cash-strapped local authorities.
Three quarters of nursing homes in
parts of the country are failing, according to the Care Quality Commission.
The reports warned that 30 per cent
of all centres ?required improvement?
or were ?inadequate?. The CQC also
found that 93 per cent of areas had care
homes that needed to improve, while
more than a third in the north and a
quarter in the south were failing.
In Britain?s wealthiest borough,
Kensington and Chelsea in west
London, 75 per cent of nursing homes
required improvement. Westminster in
central London, the second most affluent, had a 50 per cent rate of inadequate
homes, while Salford in Manchester
had more than 60 per cent rated as ?requiring improvement? or ?inadequate?.
The new data was given to Labour by
the CQC watchdog. Barbara Keeley,
the party?s shadow social care minister,
said that the results were partly down to
staffing levels caused by a lack of
training places for nurses and bursaries.
She told the Daily Mail: ?Nursing care
providers are struggling to recruit and
retain staff because of a lack of registered nurses but similar trends are
present across the care sector because
of the impact of cuts.?
The government is set to publish a
green paper with recommendations for
improving care by next summer.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
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THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; FOX/KOBAL/REX SHUTTERSTOCK
The action film starring
Bruce Willis is more festive
than White Christmas, says
its writer, because it takes
place only in the holidays
Die Hard Christmas
deniers are shot down
T
he debate
about whether
Die Hard is a
Christmas film
has devoured
sections of the internet
for years (Ben Hoyle
writes). Now it has been
settled ? with a
vengeance.
Steven de Souza, coscreenwriter of the
Bruce Willis classic, said
that the blood-soaked,
expletive-strewn
adventure was not only
bona fide holiday
viewing but was also
more attuned to the
season than one of the
most beloved of all
festive films, the Bing
Crosby and Danny Kaye
vehicle White Christmas.
When Die Hard was
released in the US in
July 1988 little attention
was paid to its Christmas
Eve setting. Yet since
then the story of the
off-duty New York cop
John McClane battling
Alan Rickman?s gang of
European terrorists has
become part of many
people?s Christmases.
This year readers of
Empire magazine rated
it the greatest Christmas
film ever. Justin
Trudeau, the Canadian
prime minister, declared
on television this month:
?Yes, Die Hard is
absolutely a Christmas
movie. There?s no doubt
about it.?
A YouGov poll
conducted a few weeks
earlier, however, found
that more than half of
all British adults
disagreed with him.
Jake Tapper, the CNN
anchorman, tweeted De
Souza asking for his
opinion. The writer
responded that it was
most definitely festive
because of its Christmas
Eve party setting and
finished his tweet with
#DieHardIsAChristmas
Movie. On Christmas
Day De Souza compiled
a chart comparing Die
Honour for theatre?s most powerful
woman . . . four years after husband
Oliver Wright, Lucy Bannerman
The joint founder of Britain?s most
successful theatre company is to be
made a dame in the new year?s honours
list, four years after her equal business
partner and husband was made a
knight.
In a sign that even the honours
system may be starting to take equality
seriously, Rosemary Squire will receive
the same award her husband Sir Howard Panter received in 2013 when the
awards are announced on Saturday.
It may, however, have taken a little
prompting. This year, Sir Howard, 68,
pointedly joked that it was a ?total outrage? that his wife had yet to receive the
honour. ?She?s not Dame Rosemary
Squire, as she should be,? he said. ?She
does far more good works than I do.?
Ms Squire, 61, who already has an
OBE, will join Nick Clegg and Ringo
Starr among those honoured by the
Queen. Over a quarter of a century, she
and Sir Howard transformed a group of
sleepy West End playhouses into the
world?s largest live theatre company.
They were nicknamed Mr and Mrs
West End, and by the time they stepped
down from their co-executive roles at
the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG)
last year, it was turning over �5 million and employed 3,500 people.
They met 30 years ago when she was
selling tickets at a theatre where he was
producing a struggling play. The production of And a Nightingale Sang was
not a success, but their partnership
flourished. They acquired their first
theatre in 1992 and, with Ms Squire
handling the finances and Sir Howard
being the creative force, they built up a
portfolio of historic West End theatres,
including the Apollo Victoria, Duke of
York?s, Lyceum, Piccadilly and the Playhouse. ATG also boasts one of Broadway?s biggest theatres, The Lyric.
Ms Squire, who grew up in Nottingham and studied languages at Southampton University, is frequently
named as one of the most powerful
Sticking together
6 The married historians David
Cannadine and Linda Colley were
both recognised in the 2009 new
year?s honours list. He was knighted.
She was appointed CBE.
6 Cleo Laine, the jazz singer, was
appointed a dame in 1997, nine
years before her husband, John
Dankworth, the composer and
musician, was knighted.
6 Last year the Olympic golden
couple Jason Kenny and Laura
Kenny (n閑 Trott), were appointed
CBE for services to cycling. The
hockey players Kate RichardsonWalsh, who captained the GB team,
and her wife, Helen RichardsonWalsh, were appointed OBE and
MBE respectively after their triumph
at the Rio Olympics..
women in British theatre. In 2013 she
was ranked the 16th most powerful
woman in the UK by Woman?s Hour on
BBC Radio 4.
She has two children with her first
husband, the literary agent Alan Brodie, and a daughter with Sir Howard.
She has an honorary doctorate from
Southampton University, and De
Montfort University and Trinity Laban
conservatoire both made her an honorary doctor of arts.
She told Radio Four that powerful
women were important as role models:
?I?ve known Christina Smith [an entrepreneur who helped save Covent Garden] since the Eighties and she was brilliant, I remember her distinctly saying,
?Well if I can buy buildings and do property deals, so can you ? it?s easy.? She
gave me that positive confidence to
realise things aren?t as complicated as
they appear to be.? Asked how she
would like to bow out of her career, she
once said: ?To rapturous applause, rave
reviews and a ?House Full? sign outside.?
Fears over student who left home at 3am in a vest
Fears are growing for a student who disappeared in a seaside town as temperatures plunged early on Boxing Day.
Police said that they were ?increasingly concerned? for Sophie Smith, 21,
who was lightly dressed when she went
missing at 3am on Tuesday from her
home in Gorleston-on-Sea, near Great
Yarmouth, Norfolk.
A search involving a police helicopter, lifeboats, coastguard patrols, firefighters and lowland rescue teams has
Sophie Smith, 21, is
taking a degree
in biomedicine
failed to find any trace of her. Lynn
Shaw, 56, her mother, left a message on
Facebook pleading for her safe return.
Police said that Ms Smith, who is in
her second year of a biomedicine
degree at the University of East Anglia,
was wearing a dark vest top and lightcoloured shorts. She was described as
about 5ft 8in tall, of slim build with
shoulder-length blond hair.
A Norfolk Police spokesman said officers were ?becoming increasingly
concerned for her welfare?. He added:
?Officers are keen to hear from anyone
who may have seen Sophie or knows of
her current whereabouts.? The Great
Yarmouth and Gorleston RNLI lifeboat
was launched at 4.30am on Boxing Day
and spent more than four hours searching between Gorleston and Caister for
any sign of Ms Smith.
Inspector Will Drummond, of Norfolk Police, said: ?We don?t think there is
anything suspicious about her disappearance. We are concerned about her
recent behaviour. We are more concerned that she went out at 3am underprepared for the weather.?
Hard with White
Christmas. The chart
points out that unlike
White Christmas, Die
Hard takes place
entirely during the
Christmas holiday and
entirely at a Christmas
party; it has three
Christmas songs to
White Christmas?s two;
and it has a more
extreme version of
?Christ-like sacrifice?
than Kaye?s act of
kindness in upgrading a
train ticket, with Willis
running barefoot over
broken glass.
There will probably
always be people who
refuse to accept that
Christmas songs, a
Christmas setting and a
dead terrorist wearing a
Santa hat amount to
Christmas fare, even if
the film?s screenwriter
says otherwise, but as
Greg Jenner, the
historian, put it: ?Die
Hard is about Christmas,
it?s a family redemption
story about personal
suffering in the service
of fellow man, in defiance
of systemic avarice. It?s
pure Dickens. But with
machine guns.?
Thousands
submit festive
tax returns
Will Humphries
In between stuffing the turkey, clearing
away wrapping paper and fending off
rows with the family, thousands of
Britons found another way to entertain
themselves on Christmas Day: submitting their tax return.
On Christmas Day 2,590 self-assessment returns were filed online followed
by 7,655 on Boxing Day, HM Revenue &
Customs (HMRC) said. On Christmas
Eve 6,033 returns were filed, 92 of them
between 11pm and midnight.
The numbers submitted were slightly
down on last year?s figures for Christmas Eve, but up for Christmas Day and
Boxing Day. On Christmas Eve last
year 6,214 returns were received, with
1,944 on Christmas Day and 6,200 on
Boxing Day.
HMRC released the latest figures as
it began a campaign to remind Britain?s
11.4 million self-assessment taxpayers
not to ignore the ?niggle? about completing their tax returns. The billboard
and online campaign, which features
ducks quacking ?tax?, urges people:
?Don?t let your tax return peck away at
you.?
The deadline for self-assessment
returns online is January 31. The
deadline for paper returns was in
October.
Angela MacDonald, HMRC director-general for customer services, said:
?It?s easy to put off doing your selfassessment, but that tax ?niggle? means
it?s always on our customers? minds.
With the January 31 deadline edging
closer we want to help remind our
customers to get it done so they can
alleviate that feeling, ensuring they can
relax and not have to worry about doing their tax return.?
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
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Spymasters give real-life Qs licence to kill time
Mark Bridge Technology Correspondent
It was fictionalised as the Q Branch of
James Bond, the top-secret department
where men in white coats worked
through the night to create sports cars
with ejector seats, bullet-firing cigarettes and booby-trapped attach� cases.
However, a critique by a recent
employee gives a very different impression of Her Majesty?s Government
Communications Centre (HMGCC),
the Foreign Office branch that makes
gadgets for our spy agencies. Staff can
allegedly ?drift along doing nothing? in
a caring and supportive atmosphere.
While Desmond Llewelyn?s Q ran a
tight ship, constantly nagging Bond to
?grow up? and ?pay attention?, it has
been claimed that his real-life successors have a far more relaxed, politically
correct management style. Any 00agent seeking a fiendishly clever gizmo
at short notice would be up against
technicians who are preoccupied by
health and safety rules and preserving
work-life balance.
Writing on the Glassdoor website,
where people can post anonymous
workplace reviews, a former ?implementation specialist? at the organisation?s Hanslope Park headquarters near
Milton Keynes said: ?Resources are
heavily under utilised and it is wholly
possible to drift along doing nothing
without any clear management.?
The whistleblower added that
?money [was] wasted on a daily basis? at
the Stuart-era manor house and employees were ?shackled by bureaucracy
and red tape?.
The former staffer claimed that the
organisation, which is understood to
have nearly 400 staff, was led by too
many ?legacy employees? and its software development technology and
practices were ?a decade out of date?.
The IT specialist said that software
specialists were managed by bosses
with backgrounds on the mechanical
side and no coding experience.
They said staff?s skills were not
properly utilised, adding: ?Career
progression is a tick box exercise
against a list of criteria that have no
effect on real-world workings. Coming
from a commercial software development background, the adjustment into
TMS
diary@thetimes.co.uk | @timesdiary
Tory?s love for
great escaper
Kemi Badenoch?s fine speech
introducing Theresa May at the
Tory conference was
overshadowed by the pitch
invasion, loss of voice and
collapsing set, but the new MP for
Saffron Walden is tipped to go far.
Her political hero, however, is
rather unexpected. Badenoch,
below, tells Conservative Home
that she idolises Airey Neave, the
shadow Northern Ireland
secretary who was murdered by
the IRA in 1979. In part, Badenoch
says, it is because he orchestrated
Margaret Thatcher becoming
Tory leader. ?There are always
stories about great figures but no
one talks about the people who
get them there,? she says. ?I
believe in teams.? The main
reason, though, is because Neave
escaped from Colditz. ?That is
probably the coolest thing any
British politician has ever done,?
she says. It certainly beats Jeremy
Corbyn appearing at Glastonbury.
Bob Neill, one of the Tory Brexit
?mutineers?, received mixed
messages in a Christmas card. The
outside of the card said ?The peace
and joy of God be upon you?. Inside
was written ?Judas, leave the
country and never come back?.
a murky tradition
This week was the 60th
anniversary of the first televised
Queen?s Speech. It is also 60 years
since the last time there was a full
programme of English
football league matches on
Christmas Day, a tradition
until television took off.
On Christmas Day 1937,
Chelsea played Charlton
in fog that grew so thick
that Sam Bartram, the
Charlton goalkeeper,
later recalled being
unable to see out of
his own area. Since
the ball didn?t come his way, he
assumed Chelsea were pinned in
their own half. After some time, a
figure loomed out of the fog. ?What
are you doing here?? a policeman
asked. ?The game was stopped a
quarter of an hour ago.? The rest of
his team had bathed and changed
by the time Bartram groped his
way back to the dressing room.
Christmas is a time when politicians
try to push their pet causes. Giles
Kenningham, a former Downing
Street press officer, tells the Politico
website that during the coalition
years he enjoyed seeing Don Foster,
a Lib Dem minister with no
apparent sense of irony, put out
exactly the same press release every
year moaning about repeats on TV.
initial reaction
Cary Grant was notoriously tight
(he used to charge children for his
autograph). The actor was also
ungrateful. An anthology of trivia
from the TV show QI reveals that
Grant used to phone Clark Gable
every Boxing Day and arrange to
meet to exchange unwanted
monogrammed gifts. I?d like to
imagine some of them found their
way to a Surrey charity shop and
are now owned by Chris Grayling.
hymn of allegiance
A poll this week showed that two
thirds of people think politicians
should keep religious beliefs out of
their job. The same applies in
reverse for the clergy. Partisan
preaching isn?t on but you can be
subtle. There is the story of the
vicar who communicated his
political views via his choice of
hymns after elections. If his
favoured party won, he would
go for Now Thank We All Our
God. If the other side won,
he would announce Dear
Lord and Father of Mankind,
Forgive Our Foolish Ways.
And if the third party did
well? God Moves in a
Mysterious Way, His
Wonders to Perform.
patrick kidd
the civil service is a massive shock.?
Under ?positives?, the whistleblower
said HMGCC provided a ?caring,
supporting environment? with ?nice?
colleagues and a good work-life
balance and ?unrivalled pension?.
A recent Glassdoor review of MI5,
the domestic spy agency, by a former
intelligence analyst claimed that there
were ?lots of staff all wanting the same
?glamorous? roles, so lots of dissatisfaction and lack of progression?.
The reviews came as GCHQ, one of
the three UK spy agencies served by
HMGCC, alongside MI5 and MI6, said
it would speed up the way it hires and
vets recruits after it fell short of hiring
targets. Spymasters complain that they
are losing top recruits to tech companies that can offer far bigger
salaries. Lengthy vetting procedures make matters worse. The
agency aims to increase headcount by 14 per cent to 6,639
people over four years.
Contrary to the chaotic picture
painted by the Glassdoor reviewer,
the Intelligence and Security
Committee said recently
that GCHQ cyberspies
James Bond?s Q,
as played by Ben
Whishaw in Skyfall
had ?overachieved?, creating double
the number of offensive cybercapabilities expected. They
could potentially be used to
retaliate against North Korea
if it were to launch a cyberstrike. The agency confirmed
this month that it believes
hackers backed by Pyongyang
were responsible for the WannaCry attack that hit IT systems at scores of NHS
trusts in May. The
Foreign Office did
not respond to a request for comment.
Leading article, page 35
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
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?Trigger happy? police use Tasers on thousands of children
Peter Yeung
Police have used Tasers on hundreds of
children each year, according to official
figures obtained by The Times.
Nearly 70 children under 14, and
more than 2,000 under 18 were targeted across England and Wales in five
years, according to the Home Office,
which took 11 months and threats of
enforcement by the Information Commissioner?s Office to provide the
figures. The numbers, which have risen
by more than 50 per cent to 519 last
year, include cases where Tasers were
drawn, aimed or fired.
Last year a report by the UN?s committee on the rights of the child urged
the British government to ban the use
of electrical discharge weapons on
children. Tasers, which can reach up to
50,000 volts ? 20 times the voltage of
a plug socket ? can cause pain severe
enough for the UN to consider them a
form of torture.
Norman Lamb, a former health min-
ister, said that the figures were a ?very
powerful case? for banning the use of
Tasers on under-18s. ?We ought to take
the UN?s view very seriously, given the
potential health risks,? he said.
Robert Kane, a professor at Drexel
University in Philadelphia, who led a
large study into the impact of Tasers on
brain function, said that the effect on
cognitive ability was ?not only significant but substantial?. He said that the
effects on minors were likely to be exaggerated and more long-term than those
on adults, adding: ?Children are not
fully developed, especially their brains,
which don?t fully develop until about 23
or 24, meaning they are vulnerable.?
A girl aged 14 was tasered in Romford,
east London, in October after police responded to reports of a drunken
woman, said by a witness to be between
30 and 40. The Metropolitan Police said
an investigation was continuing.
Sophie Khan, director of legal and
policy at the Police Action Centre,
called for an urgent review. ?There?s an
issue with the police thinking they can
use anything, anytime, anywhere, and
on anyone. They?ve become triggerhappy.?
A Home Office spokesman said that
Tasers? deployment was ?a matter for
chief officers and police and crime
commissioners, and all officers who use
them have to pass a comprehensive
training process. This includes training
officers to factor in the potential
vulnerability of the person and age and
stature.?
CORNWALL WILDLIFE TRUST/PA;
/PA; ALAMY
Warmer weather has
confused wildlife,
warns National Trust
B
ritain?s wildlife
went ?haywire?
in 2017,
according to
the National
Trust?s annual review
(Simon de Bruxelles
writes). One of the
warmest years ever left
plants and animals
confused as seasonal
variations disappeared.
Swarms of potentially
deadly Portuguese man
o?war, unprecedented
numbers of rare
hawfinches and spring
flowers that bloomed in
autumn helped to make
the year one of the most
unusual on record.
The changes caused
by global warming have
alarmed the trust?s
wildlife experts. Its
naturalist Matthew
Oates said: ?At times it
feels like the seasons
are becoming less
distinctive. Certain
species are good at
adapting, whereas
others are struggling,
some of them badly.?
A dry and mild end to
the winter led to
rampant vegetation
growth. While this may
have been good for
sheep farmers, it was
bad news for some small
annual plants and many
insects and reptiles
whose ?window? on
sunlight was reduced.
The drier winter also
affected amphibians. At
Sandscale Haws in
Cumbria, trust rangers
reported low numbers of
natterjack toads because
of a shortage of suitable
breeding pools.
Wild daffodils were
recorded in the Teign
Valley in February,
weeks ahead of
schedule, and elder and
Daffodils bloomed ahead
of schedule, Portuguese
man o?war were spotted in
Cornwall and there was a
huge influx of hawfinches
dog rose, which usually
flower in June, were
blooming by April.
Among the plants that
did not thrive in 2017
were orchids, which had
been doing well. Fine
weather in May meant a
good season for birds
and bees. Little terns
bred well at Blakeney
Point in Norfolk and
heather colletes bees
thrived on the Purbeck
heaths in Dorset. The
purple emperor, the
UK?s second largest
butterfly, was spotted at
Bookham Commons,
Surrey, on June 11, its
earliest sighting in at
least 120 years. A colony
of emperors also
appeared at Sheringham
Park in Norfolk, a
county in which they
have not been seen for
four decades.
Having promised so
much August turned out
to be one of the wettest
on record, with
September following
suit. The late summer
rains led to a good year
for fungi, however. The
rare powdercap stranger
was found at Clumber
Park, Nottinghamshire,
in October and rangers
on the Malham Tarn
estate in Yorkshire
discovered an array of
rare waxcaps. There was
an explosion of berries,
nuts and seeds in
autumn the legacy of a
autumn,
fine spring, which meant
crops were harvested
earlier than usual. The
abundance of hedge
fruits led to an influx of
the hawfinch, the largest
and rarest of the finch
family. Flocks of more
than 50 were reported.
Storm Ophelia in
October was blamed for
an invasion of
Portuguese man o?war,
which washed up on UK
beaches in numbers not
seen since 2003. There
were sightings at
Rhossili on the Gower
peninsula, at Golden
Cap, Dorset, and as far
north as Cumbria.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic
bluefin tuna returned to
UK waters after more
than 50 years.
Ash dieback, a disease
threatening the native
tree species, continued
to spread. Mr Oates said:
?I?m extremely worried
about some species,
especially some of our
insects and our native
ash trees, but also
buoyed by success
stories that emerge at
our places each year.?
UK enjoys its cleanest, greenest year
Neil Johnston
The first full day without coal power
since the Industrial Revolution and a
dozen other records helped to make
this year the greenest yet, campaigners
have claimed.
Environmentalists now want the
government to build on the progress by
providing more support for electric
vehicles and cutting household emissions.
According to WWF, the environmental group, last summer was the
cleanest one on record with more than
half of all electricity coming from lowcarbon sources between June and September.
Records were also set for the lowest
amount of carbon from electricity
production at any moment and the
largest amount of power coming from
renewable sources at any one time.
October experienced the longest
period without coal generation, when
there was no output for 40 hours, and
on one day in June wind, nuclear and
solar all generated more than gas and
coal combined for the first time.
The most power generated in a day
by wind came this month and records
for offshore wind generation were also
set. Wind power has been boosted by
falling costs as technology improves,
with new contracts awarded this year
showing that costs had fallen by 50 per
cent in two years.
Hydropower also set records for output and coal reached a record low price
in September. Solar energy accounted
for a quarter of Britain?s electricity on
June 26 and six weeks later had reached
a record 26.8 per cent of relative
demand.
Britain has halved carbon emissions
in the electricity sector since 2012,
making the country?s power system the
fourth cleanest in Europe and the
seventh cleanest in the world. The
government has also set ambitious
targets to reduce carbon emissions by
57 per cent by 2030, compared with
1990 levels.
However campaigners said commitments to becoming greener ?must be
backed up with action?, and the government must provide details on how it
plans to cut emissions through its clean
growth strategy. They said renewable
energy needed continued investment
with more support for electric vehicles
to ?cut our carbon emissions, clean up
our air and bolster the UK economy?.
Gareth Redmond-King, WWF?s
head of energy and climate, said the significance of the changes was the ?sheer
scale of how we are greening power.
?Our power has never been cleaner
than it was in 2017. Coal is falling away.
We are really cracking the problem,? he
said. ?In relative terms we have emitted
far, far less greenhouse gases than we
would normally generate. Every bit we
don?t emit is helping avoid the problems
of climate change.?
He said that the records for wind
power would help to silence critics who
claimed that turbines sat still or were
?ridiculous and too expensive? and
added that more farms onshore and
offshore should be built. He said: ?We
are on course for an even better year in
2018. Climate change is wreaking havoc
on our nature and wildlife, but we are at
last facing up to the challenge, turning
our backs on polluting fossil fuels and
embracing a new clean future.
?But we need to show more ambition
by bringing forward the ban on the sale
of petrol and diesel cars to 2030.?
Duncan Burt, from National Grid,
said: ?It?s been an exciting year managing the many ?network firsts? ? from a
day where we operated the system with
zero coal power, to one where over half
of Great Britain?s energy demand was
met by renewable generation.?
He added: ?I?m sure there will be
more records broken in 2018 and we?re
ready and excited to play our part.?
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News
News Politics
Brexit push for trade deal
that sidesteps ?Swiss trap?
Oliver Wright, Richard Ford
Ministers are drawing up plans for a
sector-by-sector Brexit deal with the
EU to avoid a ?Swiss trap? that could
undermine the long-term stability of
any agreement.
In an attempt to get maximum access
to EU markets while allowing the UK to
diverge from EU rules and regulations,
ministers are proposing a free-trade
deal that would set out the sectors of
the economy where each side agrees to
co-operate on regulation and standards.
Those sectors ? such as the chemical and pharmaceutical industries ?
will get free access to each other?s
markets in return for not breaching
common regulatory standards. If either
side breaches these rules, for example
by offering unfair subsidies, that would
trigger changes such as a switch to
World Trade Organisation rules. In
sectors of the economy not covered by
the deal ? such as restaurants or small
companies that do not export ? the
government would be free to change
regulations without any effect on the
overall agreement.
As part of the plan the UK would also
agree to abide by ?level playing field?
rules on areas of cross-cutting regulation such as environmental standards
and state aid. The plan, first reported by
Politico, the political website, and confirmed to The Times, is designed to
avoid the Swiss trap, under which divergence in one area of the agreement
could cause the entire deal to collapse,
as is the case with the agreement that
exists between the EU and Switzerland.
Ministers and officials are concerned
that any agreement struck with the EU
needs to have enough flexibility to ensure its long-term viability. ?The last
thing we want is to strike a deal that
then has to be renegotiated a few years
down the line,? said one Whitehall
source. ?It has to have effective and robust dispute resolution mechanisms.?
While the EU has publicly maintained that it will not accept any kind of
deal that allows the UK to cherry-pick
access to the EU market, senior EU officials are also understood to be in favour
of a sector-by-sector approach, with the
exception of financial services.
?I would imagine that any political
agreement will be divided into sectoral
chapters,? said one EU figure. ?However, financial services will not be there.
For that the UK will have to act under
existing equivalence rules.?
After a cabinet meeting earlier this
month, UK officials are understood to
be drafting a negotiating strategy document that will be circulated to ministers
in the new year. The broad basis of the
plan is also likely to be outlined in a
speech by Theresa May ahead of formal
Politicians? statements that missed the mark
How pronouncements
were proved wrong
months later:
On triggering Article 50
What they said
?We will activate the
Article 50 process
before the end of this
year. We cannot lose
momentum and risk the
derailing of the British
people?s decision by
stealth.? Liam Fox, July
2016.
What happened
Theresa May eventually
triggered Article 50 in
March, nine months
after the referendum.
On starting
negotiations with the
EU before triggering
Article 50
What they said
?When we sign up [to
Article 50] we will know
the shape of the deal.?
David Davis, July 2016,
in The Mail on Sunday.
What happened
The EU issued an edict
to all member states
that they could not
discuss Brexit with
Britain until after Mrs
May had triggered
Article 50. Negotiations
did not get under way
until last June.
On whether parliament
needed to approve
triggering Article 50
What they said
?Legally there is no
obligation to consult
parliament on triggering
Article 50.?
David Davis, July 2016.
What happened?
The Supreme Court
ruled that it was illegal
for the government to
trigger Article 50
without explicit
parliamentary approval.
to lop off the irritating
excrescences of the
European Union.?
Boris Johnson, January
2013.
What happened
In her speech at
Lancaster House in
January, Mrs May
announced that the
government would not
be seeking continued
membership of the
single market as it
required the continued
free movement of
people after Brexit.
On the divorce bill
What they said
?I think that the
government are clear
about this ? while we
may be paying some
legacy sums they?re
tiny.?
Michael Gove to Andrew
Marr, November 2016.
What happened
As part of the first round
of Brexit talks the
government has
accepted responsibility
for just under � billion
of net liabilities to the
bloc. Of this about
� billion will be paid in
the transition period.
On the role of the
European Court of
Justice in determining
citizens? rights
What they said
?We?re going to be
outside the reach of the
European Court, we?re
going to be outside the
reach of all of the law-
On staying in the single
market after Brexit
What they said
?What most sensible
people want is to
belong to the
single market but
Remainers weren?t much better
making capabilities of
the EU.?
David Davis, May.
What happened
As part of the deal with
the EU, British courts
can ask the ECJ to rule
on matters of European
law in regard to EU
citizens? rights cases
brought in the UK.
What they said
?If there is not real and sincere progress
that will put back the opening of
discussions on the future ? that
includes transition.?
Michel Barnier, European chief
negotiator, setting a deadline for Britain
to agree a settlement in November.
What happened
The deadline kept being put back until
a deal was finally agreed in December.
On transition
What they said
?The need for
transitional
arrangements will
depend on what the
final arrangements will
be. If we do not know
where we are going to
end up, we cannot have
a transitional
arrangement.? David
Davis, March
What happened
Britain and the EU have
agreed the principle of a
?standstill? transition for
two years after Brexit,
during which the UK will
accept all new EU rules
and regulations and be
subject to the ECJ?s
jurisdiction.
What they said
?If the British people vote to leave, there
is only one way to bring that about,
namely to trigger Article 50 and the
British people would rightly expect that
to start straight away.?
David Cameron, when prime minister,
on triggering Article 50 immediately
after the referendum.
What happened
Article 50 was not triggered for another
nine months.
On a comprehensive
trade deal with the EU
What they said
?There is a free-trade
zone stretching from
Iceland to Turkey that all
European nations have
access to, regardless of
whether they are in or
out of the euro or EU.
After we vote to leave
we will remain in the
zone.?
Michael Gove, April
2016.
What happened
The EU made clear it
would not discuss
Britain?s future trade
relations with the bloc
until the divorce bill
had been settled. EU
figures have made
clear that it will not
agree to Britain trading
on the same terms as
before. Most people
expect a trade deal that
maintains zero tariffs on
goods exports.
What they said
?If we left the EU . . . UK energy costs
could rocket by at least half a billion
pounds a year.?
Amber Rudd, March 2016
What happened
Bills have not risen.
Jeremy Corbyn got his own chant,
trade talks in March. In a report published today, Migration Watch UK, the
think tank, insists that ensuring ease of
travel for UK citizens must be the priority for the next set of talks. British negotiators should seek only minimal formalities for UK citizens entering the
EU, said Migration Watch, which campaigns for lower immigration. This
would allow swift and easy entry to the
EU and vice versa into the UK for visitors, students and business travellers, it
said. However, EU citizens coming to
work in the UK and Britons taking
employment in the EU bloc would need
to be subject to a work permit regime.
A European Travel Information and
Authorisation Scheme (ETIAS) for
non-visa nationals is expected to be
implemented in the EU by 2020. Senior
EU officials have indicated that UK
citizens will be subject to ETIAS, according to Migration Watch, but the
campaign group said that was ?likely to
depend on the negotiations?.
Alp Mehmet, the vice-chairman of
the group, said: ?Preserving smooth
and easy movement between the UK
and EU after Brexit is in everyone?s interests, but if the proposed EU schemes
have the effect of making travel for UK
citizens more difficult, there will always
be the option of reciprocating.?
Goldman Sachs moving European unit to Dublin
Alexandra Frean
Goldman Sachs is understood to be
moving the headquarters of its European asset management business from
London to Dublin because of Brexit.
The bank plans to move about 20
people to Ireland as part of the plan,
according to the Financial Times. It has
already confirmed that it will create
hubs in Frankfurt and Paris after
Britain leaves the European Union.
There have been mixed signals from
the big banks about how many jobs may
have to be moved from London to the
Continent to retain the ?passporting?
rights that would allow them to provide
services across the single market after
Britain has left the EU. Several banks
have warned that hundreds or
thousands of jobs may have to be
relocated, while lobby groups for Paris
and Frankfurt have each been seeking
to attract 10,000 financial services jobs
from London.
So far, however, the number of jobs
affected seems to be much lower and
some institutions appear to be waiting
to see how negotiations between the
EU and Britain pan out before making
final plans. While banks could move
their registered base for certain operations to continental cities, it seems
increasingly likely that they may, in
many instances, keep the nuts and bolts
of the organisation and most of the
related jobs in London.
Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Nomura
and Standard Chartered have said that
they will expand some operations in
Frankfurt. Both Barclays and JP Morgan have confirmed that they will add
jobs in Ireland, while Bank of America
has picked Dublin as the main base for
its EU investment banking and market
operations after Brexit.
However, in October UBS said it had
received ?regulatory and political
clarifications? around Brexit that made
it unlikely the Swiss bank would follow
through on a threatened exodus of
1,000 staff from London. Instead it said
that it would ?keep as many people as
we can in London?.
Goldman Sachs was not available for
comment.
A year of
Patrick Kidd
Political Sketch
?N
othing has changed?
bleated Theresa May
as her manifesto fell
apart in May and to
some extent she is
right. As the year ends, Mrs May
and Jeremy Corbyn still lead their
parties (proving Wilson?s doctrine
that the weak are a long time in
politics), there is still no decision
on when or if the restoration of
Parliament will happen and Brexit
remains the political version of
knotweed, strangling the life out of
all other subjects.
But some things are different:
Scottish Tories, once scarcer than
panda bears in Edinburgh, kept
Mrs May in power after her party
lost control of the People?s
Republics of Kensington and
Canterbury; Big Ben, its
clocktower now clad in scaffolding,
stopped bonging; people kept
creating new centrist parties, some
lasting as long as 48 hours; George
Osborne left politics to edit a
regional freesheet; Alex Salmond
became a chat show host for
Russia Today; and MPs no longer
must wear ties. And so here are my
award-winners for 2017.
survivor of the year
Mrs May said at the start of 2017
that this would be ?a year of
opportunity and unity?. It turned
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
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HARRY DURRANT/GETTY IMAGES; PIXEL8000
l seen
so naturally we have barely
anything of him since. A highlight
was his grapple with Mr Johnson,
who called him a ?big girl?s
blouse?. Mr Gwynne then called
the foreign secretary a ?pillock?. In
the blink of an eye, they were
wrestling on live TV. Some might
call it undignified but it beat yet
another robotic press conference
from Mrs May.
rebel of the year
Ruth Davidson did not get the
memo about party branding. Or
perhaps she just didn?t think much
of it. The leader of the Scottish
Tories gave the Orwell Lecture
during the election and quoted him
on how politicians use language
that ?gives an appearance of
solidity to pure wind?. God knows
what he would make of this
campaign, Ms Davidson said. ?You
know: strong, stable . . .? And then
she gave a shrug at Mrs May?s
bland slogan. I was surprised that
Big Mother didn?t summon her to
Room 101 for re-education.
Jacob Rees-Mogg?s support grew, Ruth Davidson rejected the party line, Theresa May lost colleagues, including Damian Green, and Boris Johnson faced down critics
mutinies, mugwumpery and the Mogg
out to be more one of ambiguity
and mutiny. She lost a 20-point poll
lead, her majority to govern, her
standing with EU leaders, 13 of her
MPs, three of her cabinet and her
voice at the conference. Yet she was
still there, able to tell Mr Corbyn,
with evident satisfaction at their
final PMQs: ?I am prime minister,
he is not.? Her backbenchers
drummed their feet and roared. She
may not be loved, but she is
respected.
song of the year
This was the year when Corbynites
found their tune. ?Ohhhh, Jeremy
Corbyn?, sung to the White Stripes?
2003 hit Seven Nation Army,
echoed up and down the land after
his appearance at the Glastonbury
Festival. Several possible successors
were also serenaded with this tune,
so at the Labour conference we
heard ?Ohhhh, Emily
Thornberry?, ?Ohhhh,
Rebecca Long-Bailey?
and ?Ohhhh, Angela
Rayner?. It is one
reason why Clive
Lewis is no longer a
contender.
metaphor of the
year
Boris Johnson telling
the foreign affairs
committee what our
U would
relationship with the EU
We want
ant to be
be like after Brexit. ?We
a flying buttress, supportive of the
EU kirk but not fussy about how the
masonry interlocks,? he said,
though a better metaphor would
have been to describe us as the pub
across the road, supporting the
drinker of the year
Sir Edward Leigh raised a most
important Brexit question: noting
that the EU cellar contains 42,000
bottles, the Tory backbencher
demanded that Britain reclaim its
fair share of booze after we leave. As
the referendum slogan almost had it:
Vote Leave, Take Cointreau.
award for contribution to
political discourse
Mr Johnson comes close for calling
Mr Corbyn a ?mutton-headed old
mugwump? but the winner is Tom
Watson, who described Mr Johnson
as a ?caggie-handed cheese-headed
fopdoodle with a talent for
slummocking about?.
congregation but not controlled by
the bishop. Tom Tugendhat, the
committee chairman, played along.
?So you?re saying the buttress is
British but the Mass being
said ins
inside is in French??
as
he asked.
Good Lord,
no, Mr Johnson
re
replied.
They speak
jo good English on
jolly
th continent now.
the
thrill-seeker of
t
t
the year
Sir Vince Cable,
rest
restored to parliament
and iimmediately made
Lib Dem leader, was
worried that
tha people might see
him as too old
old, at 74, to be the next
prime minister.
So instead he pitched to be the
next James Bond, using his
conference speech to reveal how
much he enjoys driving fast cars and
taking on dangerous ski runs. He
also wrote a novel containing sex
scenes. Double-oh-no is the man
that all parish councillors want to be
and all accountants want between
their balance sheets.
parliamentarian of the year
Jared O?Mara, who toppled Nick
Clegg in Sheffield Hallam, is yet to
make his maiden speech, has not
intervened in any debate and has
taken part in only 23 votes. After the
revelation of sexist comments he
made before becoming a Labour MP
(he is now an independent), he was
signed off by his GP. He has,
however, changed parliament in a
way that Mr Clegg never did. After
O?Mara complained that cerebral
palsy makes it hard for him to do up
a tie, Speaker Bercow said that MPs
would no longer have to wear one.
The press gallery, also liberated
from our neckwear as a result,
have taken advantage of the rule
change more eagerly than MPs.
strategist of the year
On the last day of the election, I was
at Norwich rail station where a local
who looked and sounded like a
Ronnie Barker caricature asked me
to pass on his advice to Mrs May
on dealing with terrorists.
?Shoot ?em in the back of the
head,? he said. ?Or arrange for
them all to be hit by a bus
or summat.? He?s
probably now the
national security
adviser.
bromance of
the year
Andrew Gwynne,
whose
constituency of
Reddish matches
the colour of his
face when he gets
excited, was one of
the stars of Labour?s
election campaign,
literary critic of the year
Andrea Leadsom for describing
Jane Austen as ?one of our
greatest living authors?. And
presumably wondering why she
hasn?t published much recently.
populist of the year
He is an Old Etonian with a
double-barrelled surname, wears
double-breasted suits and uses
words like ?aestivating? and
?sesquipedalian?. He has six
children, most of whom are named
after popes, and a day after the
birth of the latest (Sixtus Dominic
Boniface) was at Lord?s watching
cricket rather than changing
nappies. Yet Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP
for the 19th century, might be the
future of the Tory party. His
impeccable manners, as well as his
views on Brexit, made them swoon
at the conference. One speech was
interrupted by a protester. The
Mogg, unfazed, invited the man
forward. ?You?re despicable,? the
protester told him. ?Leaving aside
my despicability for a moment,
what would you like to ask?? the
Mogg replied. Politeness can
be so disarming. He denies
leadership ambitions ?
?heaven knows, you?ll be
offering me the papacy
next? ? but
Moggmentum may flourish
in 2018.
communicator of
the year
?You?re joking? Not
another one. Oh for
God?s sake, honestly I
can?t stand this? ?
the reaction of
Brenda, from Bristol,
when told by the BBC
that there would be
a general election.
You spoke for us
all, Brenda.
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News
DEREK BLAIR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Supersonic whisky
promised drams
without the drama
Marc Horne
Those who tinker with the process of
making whisky have always risked the
wrath of traditionalists.
But an experiment to transform the
centuries-old method for ageing the
?water of life? so that it could be
matured within hours was seriously
considered by government scientists.
A batch made in 1951 produced
promising results but a larger experiment failed and the idea was abandoned amid fears foreign competitors
would copy the process and undermine
one of Scotland?s top exports.
The creation of Scotch is a
time-honoured process of distillation
and ageing protected by stringent regulations. However, it has emerged that
officials oversaw a trial that tried to
dramatically accelerate whisky maturation. Documents, which have been
opened to the public and placed in the
National Archives, reveal that one distiller claimed to have made a breakthrough that could produce mature
spirit in hours rather than years.
Initial tests hinted that ?new whisky?,
created by circulating immature spirit
through active chemicals, could actually lead to an improvement in the taste.
The experiment was eventually abandoned and the trial has remained under
wraps for almost 70 years.
Correspondence from the Board of
Trade dating from 1952 confirms that
the proposed innovation was treated
with the utmost seriousness. It states:
?The minister recently forwarded to us
a letter he had received from a friend,
Mr AJ Menzies, managing director of
Fettercairn Distilleries Limited, Kincardineshire, about a process which he
says he has invented for accelerating
the maturing process of whisky.
?Mr Menzies claims his process reduces the maturing time from about five
to ten years to a few hours. If the process
is successful, even if only partially so, it
will obviously have a considerable
effect on the Scotch whisky trade.?
A small scale batch of the accelerated
whisky was hailed by government
chemists, who noted in October 1952:
?The analysis shows the spirit to have
the character of a pot still malt whisky,
having a much higher alcohol content,
about six times, than well known proprietary blends. The general opinion
here is that there has been some improvement in the taste.?
The prospect of the market being
flooded by rapidly produced whisky
Don?t blame
Cromwell for
dull Christmas
Simon de Bruxelles
Soldiers with a 70-year-old Mortlach single malt. Newly released archive papers
reveal that scientists experimented to create a whisky that matured in hours
eventually set alarm bells ringing. A
letter from one Board of Trade official
to his counterpart in Edinburgh outlined the escalating concerns. It states:
?If the invention were to be taken up
abroad, foreign distillers might possibly
be able to destroy our exports by producing something nearly equivalent.
These are gloomy prospects.? However,
a large batch produced at the premises
of Alexander McGavin, a Glasgow
whisky blender, resulted in ?significant
evaporation and loss of proof? and the
project was then quietly abandoned.
A spokesman for the Scotch Whisky
Association said: ?What this failed
experiment proves is there can be no
shortcuts to Scotch.?
The author of the ITV drama
Victoria has been accused of ?unfairly?
claiming that Oliver Cromwell banned
Christmas.
Daisy Goodwin repeated the widely
held misconception in an article in
The Times?s Saturday Review about
how Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
celebrated Christmas.
John Goldsmith, chairman of the
Cromwell Association, in a letter in
today?s Times, denies that Cromwell did
any such thing.
Mr Goldsmith did, however, concede
that Cromwell must have approved of
the ban as it continued under his rule as
Lord Protector of England from 1653 to
his death in 1658 after being introduced
by the Puritan-dominated House of
Commons in 1644.
There had been complaints that
the celebration of Christ?s birth was
used as an excuse for drunkenness and
debauchery. Christmas was renamed
?Christ tide? to avoid any reference to
Roman Catholic ?Mass? and deemed to
be an ordinary working day. Eating a
mince pie or singing carols was an unlawful celebration. Cromwell, who was
leading the New Model Army when
Christmas was banned at the height of
the Civil War, presided over one of the
dourest periods in English history.
Christmas was restored, along with
the monarchy, in 1660.
Letters, page 34
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
21
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News
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Alexa, what are
the biggest tech
trends for 2018?
Mark Bridge Technology Correspondent
More talkative digital assistants, selfparking cars, wider use of the bitcoin
infrastructure and increasingly serious
cyberassaults will be among the
technology trends of the coming year,
experts say. They predict:
more blockchain
The infrastructure behind bitcoin consists of a digital ledger hosted across a
network of computers that can mutually verify transactions. ?Blockchains?
enable efficient, secure real-time updating of information and can be used
far more widely than for cryptocurrencies. Foreign states are testing them for
public services such as blockchain land
registries and databases of benefits
entitlement. There will be more pilot
schemes here, and possibly the creation
of a co-ordinating body for UK blockchain initiatives.
bitcoin wobbling, or worse
Experts including the Nobel prizewinning economists Joseph Stiglitz and
Robert Shiller have predicted that bitcoin?s price will crash after its rise this
year from $1,140 to $15,180 (�,330).
Some have likened conditions to those
before the dotcom bubble burst in 2001,
or the Wall Street crash of 1929. Optimists don?t believe this marks the currency?s end, only a correction. There?s
no consensus on when this crash will
occur. However, Saxo Bank said that, in
an extreme scenario, the currency
could peak above $60,000 (�,780)
next year before correcting to $1,000.
record fines
Stricter data-protection rules come into force in the EU in May and analysts
expect there will be mammoth fines for
some of the Silicon Valley giants early
on to ensure businesses take the regime
seriously. Yahoo would have faced two
fines of $198 million (�8 million) each
for data breaches in 2013 and 2014,
given the new regime?s fine tariff of
$20 million or 4 per cent of global turnover, whichever is greater. Britain has
committed to the data-protection regulation despite Brexit. Google, Facebook
and Twitter may face new regulations
to force them to take their responsibilities as publishers more seriously.
bigger cyberattacks
The WannaCry attack that paralysed
NHS IT systems in May highlighted
shortcomings in our defences ? and
could have been far more damaging. It
was stopped only because the North
Korean hackers left a ?kill-switch? in
the software. China and Russia have
infiltrated the IT systems of FTSE 100
giants and UK power companies, raising concerns that foreign states could
pull off much more damaging attacks.
As long as the price of bitcoin holds up,
there will be more hacks aimed at stealing or extorting the cryptocurrency or
?hijacking? computers to mine it.
a louder alexa
Amazon says it sold tens of millions of
devices equipped with its voice-activated digital assistant this Christmas. According to research from the analytics
firm VoiceLabs, most people stop using
voice-enabled apps within a week. This
creates an incentive for developers to
nudge their users into action. Amazon
recently launched a ?notifications? feature, which means Alexa can pipe up to
tell owners about breaking news or
weather forecasts, for example. The
alerts are opt-in to prevent complaints
that Alexa is nagging customers.
fully autonomous parking
Motorists will be able to step out of the
car and press a button on their phone or
key fob to enable autonomous parking
under proposed legal changes. It represents a step towards the driverless cars
ministers say will be road-legal by 2021.
Analysts believe we will see more ondemand subscription services like
those introduced by Porsche and Volvo
as a new model of car ownership.
Readers seek
slow culture
amid digital
revolution
V
irginia Woolf,
Philip Larkin
and TS Eliot
are among the
luminaries
who have contributed to
the pages of The Times
Literary Supplement since
it was founded in 1902
(Matthew Moore writes).
Now the magazine, one of
Britain?s oldest literary
reviews, is enjoying an
unlikely revival as the
first generation raised
on the internet start to
embrace ?slow culture?.
Weekly sales of the
TLS have increased by
nearly 25 per cent in
each of the past two
years to reach about
40,000 a week, its
highest since the 1980s.
Although the digital
revolution has slashed
the print circulations
of many magazines,
highbrow titles are
benefiting from the
backlash. The circulation
of the London Review of
Books, TLS?s fortnightly
rival, also increased this
year (up 4.4 per cent to
70,000), and current
The TLS began life as a
supplement in The Times in
1902 but went its own way
12 years later. Sales are now
the highest since the 1980s
ff irs magazines such as
affairs
The Spectator, New
Statesman and Prospect
are in similarly rude
health.
Stig Abell, editor of TLS
since May last year, said
that the success of
serious, in-depth
publications was a
?corollary of all the bad
stuff ? pumped out by
social media. ?If you?re
bombarded daily with
questionable, superficial
clicky crap, like we all
are, to the point where
our mental health is
threatened . . . a space
opens up for people
who want to lean back
a exercise their
and
b
brain
with something
w
worthwhile,?
he said.
Typical new readers
o the TLS are
of
p
professionals
in their
th
thirties
or forties who
d a humanities
did
d
degree
but work in an
u
unrelated
field and
p
pine
for the
in
intellectual
adventure
o university. Some of
of
t most-clicked-on
the
a
articles
on the TLS
w
website
are profiles of
lo
long-dead
thinkers,
in
including
a 4,000-word
p
piece
on Wittgenstein.
T TLS began as a
The
literary supplement of
The Times then became a
standalone title in 1914. It
is owned by News UK,
publisher of The Times.
22
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
News
JOHN RUSSELL /CATERS NEWS AGENCY
I N T H E T I M E S T O M O R ROW
BUSINESS
COME BACK
EMAIL
All is forgiven
MAIN PAPER
ARTS
SPORT
FROM THE
APARTMENT TO WHEN
HARRY MET SALLY
Kevin Maher?s guide to
New Year?s Eve as seen
through the movies
ANTHONY
JOSHUA
The inside story
of his rise to
heavyweight
champion
PULLOUT
MAIN PAPER
COMMENT
Ed Conway
2017?s turning points.
Blink and you missed them
MAIN PAPER
?Tis the season to put
out your back or neck
Drivers keep on
getting distracted
Christmas and New Year can
be a health hazard, according
to a survey which found that
one in four people sustain an
injury over the festive period.
Most problems affected the
back, neck or knees and
occurred during activities such
as decorating trees or carrying
presents. Other strains were
caused by icy paths or
uncomfortable makeshift beds.
Damian McClelland, of Bupa
UK, which commissioned the
poll, said the danger was not
over after Boxing Day: ?Hitting
the sales and discarding old
Christmas trees can all put a
physical strain on our bodies.?
More than 6,000 people have
been caught at least twice for
driving while distracted,
including using a mobile phone
illegally, in the past four years.
More than 400 drivers were
caught three times, 20 were
caught four times and three
were caught five times, Driver
and Vehicle Licensing Agency
figures show. The data relates
to the number of CU80
endorsements held on driving
records, which are given to
drivers not in full control of
their vehicle. Motoring groups
warned that a perceived lack
of enforcement means some
drivers ignore the rules.
Police chief in plea
for knife crime funds
Man arrested after
Boxing Day death
Attempts to reduce knife crime
would benefit from more police
resources, the country?s most
senior officer warned. Crimes
involving knives went up by
more than a quarter to 37,000
last year, including 213 murders.
Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan
Police commissioner, said that
although public services were
stretched she knew ?exactly?
where she would deploy extra
resources because it was
necessary to ?bear down? to
further reduce the problem.
She told the BBC Radio 4
Today programme: ?We need
to focus on what matters most,
and violence on our streets is a
big issue.?
Police have launched a murder
investigation after a man
found injured outside a house
on Boxing Day died.
The 29-year-old victim was
discovered outside the
property on Kettlewell Close
in Warwick shortly after
10.20pm with serious injuries,
Warwickshire police said. The
emergency services attended
the scene but the man was
pronounced dead shortly after
their arrival.
A 21-year-old man has been
arrested on suspicion of
murder and is in custody.
Officers have appealed for
witnesses and said the man?s
next of kin has been informed.
Flying leap A lucky snapper caught this image of a backflipping
dolphin off the coast of northeast Scotland with a telephoto lens
Hamilton sorry for criticising nephew?s dress
Lewis Hamilton, the Formula
One world champion, has
apologised after appearing to
mock his young nephew for
wearing a princess outfit. The
driver, 32, was criticised for a
video, posted on his Instagram
on Christmas Day, in which he
said: ?Look at my nephew?
before telling the child: ?Boys
don?t wear princess dresses!?
The next day Hamilton offered
his ?deepest apologies? and
said he had ?always been in
support of anyone living their
life exactly how they wish?.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
23
1G M
News
Obama takes swipe at Trump tweets
JEFF OVERS/PA; GETTY IMAGES
Lucy Bannerman
Barack Obama has warned against the
irresponsible use of social media by
those in power in an interview with
Prince Harry for Radio 4?s Today
programme.
The former US president did not
mention his successor in the White
House by name but urged leaders to
wield their influence on social media
wisely in comments that will be seen as
a thinly veiled rebuke of President
Trump and his controversial use of
Twitter.
Questioned by Harry, 33, as part of
the prince?s guest editorship of the
flagship radio programme, Mr Obama
spoke of his concern that social media
was distorting the public?s understanding of complex issues and corroding
civil discourse.
?All of us in leadership have to find
ways to recreate a common space on
the internet,? he said. ?One of the
dangers of the internet is people can
have entirely different realities.
?They can be just cocooned in information that reinforces their current
biases. The question is: how do we
harness this technology that allows a
multiplicity of voices, a diversity of
views, but does not lead to a Balkanisation of our society but rather continues
to promote ways of finding common
ground??
He added that one of the best ways to
safeguard against the corrosive effects
of social media was ?to make sure that
online communities do not just stay
online, but move offline?.
He urged people to have more faceto-face discussions and suggested that
they may also find some surprising
areas of agreement.
?Social media is a really powerful tool
for people of common interests to
convene and get to know each other
and connect,? he said. ?But then it?s
important for them to get offline, meet
in a pub, meet at a place of worship,
meet in a neighbourhood and get to
know each other,? he said.
?The truth is, on the internet
everything is simplified, but when you
meet people face to face it turns out it is
complicated.?
He added: ?It?s also, by the way,
harder to be as obnoxious and cruel in
person as people can be anonymously
on the internet.?
Mr Obama, 56, also reflected on life
after the White House in the rare interview, which was recorded three months
ago in Toronto, during the Invictus
Games, the competition that Harry
founded for wounded servicemen and
women. He said that he had mixed feelings on the day when President Trump
Review
T
Prince Harry relished taking the reins of the Today programme yesterday, having interviewed Barack Obama in September
was inaugurated as his country?s 45th
president in January, given ?all the
work that was still undone?, but added
that ?overall there was serenity there?.
The interview was the highlight of
Harry?s editorship of the programme,
which he also used to focus on mental
health, the charitable sector and the
armed forces.
The broadcast included an interview
with his father, Prince Charles, who
warned that climate change was caus-
ing ?untold horrors? around the world.
In his conversation with the former
president, Harry asked Mr Obama for
something to be optimistic about, saying that ?many people are worried
about the direction that the world is
headed?.
Mr Obama replied: ?All the problems
we face are solvable despite all the terrible news that you see. If you had to
choose a moment in human history in
which you?d want to be born you?d
choose today because the fact is that
the world is healthier, wealthier, better
educated and more tolerant, more
sophisticated and less violent.?
In a light-hearted round of quickfire
questions to conclude the interview, the
prince snuck in a question about
Meghan Markle, asking Mr Obama
which programme he preferred: The
Good Wife or Suits, which stars his
fianc閑. ?Great, great answer,? he said,
when Mr Obama gave him the answer
he was looking for. Asked whether he
preferred Harry or William, Mr Obama
joked: ?William, right now.?
David Aaronovitch, page 31
Royals are ?the family that Meghan never had?
Lucy Bannerman
Meghan Markle had a ?fantastic? time
getting to know the Windsors over
Christmas, Prince Harry said yesterday, adding that they were
?the family I suppose that she?s
never had?.
The American actress and
her fianc� spent the festive
break with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, ?running
round with the kids? at their
estate in Norfolk and visiting the Queen at nearby
Sandringham, he said.
Ms Markle?s parents
divorced when she was
five. She is estranged
from her half-sister, Samantha Markle, and her
half-brother, Thomas
Markle Jr, who was once arrested for
threatening his girlfriend with a gun.
Reflecting on their first Christmas together, Prince Harry told the Today
programme on Radio 4, for which he
was guest editor, that his family
?loved having her there?.
He said: ?It was fantastic, she
really enjoyed it. We had great
fun staying with my brother
and sister-in-law and running
round with the kids.?
Sarah Montague, one
of the presenters, asked
the prince if there were
any family traditions
that had to be explained to Ms Markle.
Meghan Markle was
happy to play with
the children
?Oh plenty,? he replied. ?I think we?ve
got one of the biggest families that I
know of, and every family is complex as
well. She?s done an absolutely amazing
job. She's getting in there and it?s the
family I suppose that she?s never had.?
Referring to the royal family?s traditional appearance at church on Christmas Day, he said: ?There?s always that
family part of Christmas [where] there?s
always that work element there as well,
and I think together we had an amazing
time.?
The prince will marry his 36-year-old
fianc閑 on May 19 in a wedding service
to be held at St George?s Chapel in
Windsor Castle.
He avoided questions yesterday as to
whether Barack and Michelle Obama
would be invited to the wedding. It has
been reported that the prince is keen for
the former US president and his wife to
fibe on the guest list. Government offiir
cials, however, are concerned that their
presence could be seen as a snub to
President Trump.
n
When asked if Mr Obama had been
invited, Prince Harry replied: ?I don't
know about that, we haven?t even
put the invite or the guest list together.
?Who knows if he?s going to be invited or not . . . I wouldn?t want to
ruin that surprise.?
The prince has had a warm relationship with the Obamas for moree
st
than four years, since the former First
ng
Lady and the prince started supporting
ry
each other?s projects helping military
veterans.
ch
They have frequently visited each
he
other, with Mr Obama granting the
prince an exclusive interview for his appearance on the Today programme.
he interview was a
triumph of opportunity
and social progress:
evidence of how far
we?ve come in a century
(Catherine Nixey writes). ?It was
only a few generations ago where
someone who looked like me was
in bondage, or if not in bondage,
then servitude,? said Barack
Obama in his first interview since
leaving the presidency. ?And
couldn?t even imagine having this
conversation in this hotel room.?
His interviewer was less of a
triumph of social mobility. Prince
Harry sounded thoughtful at the
mention of the hotel, presumably
aware that his own ancestors
would almost certainly have been
able to imagine visiting it.
?Hmm,? he said.
Or perhaps he said something
else: the prince has an accent
that is so posh it is at times
impossible to make out. You
found yourself turning up the
radio to catch what he was
saying. The questions were good
when you could hear them:
thoughtful, well-prepared. The
pair sounded at ease. Harry
asked whether Mr Obama was
relieved to be out of politics. It
was such a good question that he
asked it again minutes later. Mr
Obama, who has form in being
gracious to slightly orange men
with inherited privilege,
obligingly answered it again.
Nobody minded because Harry
was lovely. The man who was
once naughty Harry, drunken
Harry, Boujis Harry, has left
behind the fleshpots. Now he is
Saint Harry who spends his time
toiling among the needy and
making outreach radio in which
he speaks to those others ignore.
The injured. The depressed. The
Prince of Wales.
?Father, Pa,? he said. ?Thank
you for allowing me to interview
you.? You sensed it wasn?t going
to be a Today inquisition. Prince
Charles, sounding oddly like
someone doing an impression of
Prince Charles, chatted on about
climate change and being
thought to be ?dotty?.
Today presenters were infected
by the royal glow. ?We have all
been struck by how engaged you
are,? Sarah Montague said. ?I
don?t suppose anyone turned
down your request for interview,?
she added, enviously. If voices
could curtsy, hers would have
been on its knees. How far we
have come in a few generations.
Prince Harry?s accent was so posh
it was hard to understand at times
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
25
2G M
News
ISTOCKPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
Loch Carron is thought to be home to 250 million flame shell clams, below. They are vital to the marine ecosystem because their nests, built of shells and rocks, provide shelter to young fish and scallops
Damaged clam reef is world?s largest
Gurpreet Narwan
A rare reef off the west coast of
Scotland that was seriously damaged
by a scallop-dredging vessel has been
identified as the biggest of its kind in the
world.
The destruction caused at Loch Carron, in Wester Ross, from two incidents
of intensive dredging in April was said
to have been like ?dropping a bunkerbusting bomb on a nursery school?.
Fishing at the site was immediately
banned and over the past few months
divers from Scottish National Heritage,
Marine Scotland and Heriot-Watt University have been assessing the size of
the reef. They estimate that about 250
million small saltwater flame shells, a
type of clam, live on the bed of Loch
Carron, making it two and a half times
larger than a similar feature in Loch
Alsh, which was previously thought to
be the biggest in the world.
Flame shells build nests from shells,
stones and other materials. This makes
a dense bed that supports other species,
Loch Carron
Portree
SCOTLAND
Skye
Morvich
10 miles
Mallaig
including young fish and scallops called
spat. Many of the flame shell beds once
found off the west coast of Scotland
have disappeared.
Scallop divers first reported the damage at Loch Carron after seeing a
dredger working intensively in the area
twice in April. Video footage showed
hundreds of dead and dying flame
shells on the seabed, with dead spider
crabs, damaged starfish and smashed
sea urchins.
Conservationists said it could take
years for the bed to recover and the
Scottish government promised an investigation.
In May the site was made
ed area
a marine protected
(MPA) for two years
and an urgent man
rine conservation
order was put in
place banning
mobile
gear
fisheries, such
as
dredgers,
from the area.
Ministers will
now seek to
make the ban
permanent after a
on
public consultation
anna
next year. Roseanna
Cunningham, thee Scottish environment secretary,
said: ?This is an astonishing find
ld b
l t
and I think that we would
be completely remiss not to take notice of it and to
do what we can to protect it. The meas-
ures we use for MPAs are implemented
in consultation with the fishermen to
make sure that they are reasonable and
appropriate.?
Natio
The National
Trust for
s the reveScotland said
lations about the size
of th
the reef highligh
lighted
the impo
portance
of prote
tecting
the site.
?The discove of the exery
t of the matent
r
rine
features
u
underscores
ho vital they
how
are to Scotland?s
nati
national
heritage,? a spokesman
?
said. ?We
wholeheartedly welcome any
heartedly
measur
new measures
that will
seabed
protect the seabed.?
Ni k U
d d
f
Nick
Underdown,
from
the charity
Open Seas, said: ?Flame shells are highly sensitive to damaging fishing activi-
ties like scallop dredging and prawn
trawling. It just does not make sense to
tow across these fragile habitats.?
Fishermen have been keen to distance themselves from the skipper who
caused damage to the reef at Loch
Carron, saying that he did not belong to
any industry organisation.
Bertie Armstrong, from the Scottish
Fishermen?s Federation, said the organisation had ?no objection to formalising the emergency provisions for the
Loch Carron flame shell bed?.
?The Scottish Fishermen?s Federation is foursquare behind environmental protection,? he said. ?We are working closely with Marine Scotland on the
identification, designation and management measures for the MPA network seeking a balance with sustainable economic activity.? He added:
?Flame shells are already covered by a
number of representative areas. Inclusion of any additional examples of any
feature will always be considered carefully, again taking due account of all the
needs of fishing communities.?
Bishop warns of pop-up brothels Undertaker took the wrong
John Simpson Crime Correspondent
Homeowners renting out cottages
should beware of short lets becoming
?pop-up brothels? in the Peak District
and beyond, a bishop has warned.
Sex slaves are being trafficked to the
UK, drugged and raped up to ten times
a day in holiday homes rented out by
unwitting owners, the Right Rev
Alastair Redfern said.
Dr Redfern, the Bishop of Derby, who
has been working with the House of
Lords on legislation to improve laws,
warns that gangs of organised criminals exploit the women, largely from
eastern Europe, who are brought on the
promise of paid work.
Police across the country have
warned of a pattern of Airbnb and other
short-term letting websites being used
by criminals to set up the brothels,
particularly in smaller seaside and rural
towns. ?In the Peak District there are
lots of holiday homes used as pop-up
brothels,? Dr Redfern said. ?Organised
criminals bring vulnerable women in
and then use a cottage for business.
They stay for four weeks and make a lot
of money.?
He said the gangs and their victims
relocated quickly to avoid arousing
suspicions locally and to make detection difficult. ?This is a serious criminal
business. The women are forced to
work in brothels because the work they
were promised does not exist. The girls
are offered drugs as that?s another way
to exert control. They become addicted
and start to lose everything.
?I met a victim living in London who
has been raped ten times a day . . . For
the public it?s difficult because it is quite
usual to see groups of men get into a
vehicle and drive around for work. It
happens all the time. But the public
need to look closer. Are they all leaving
the same house? Is their demeanour
different? It?s likely that victims will be
shouted at. If they?re not mixing with
other people, it?s likely they are trapped
in that situation. We?re asking people to
look out for the signs.?
He added that the women often did
not speak English and had no access to
money. Some suffered from mental
health issues and were vulnerable.
?They?re controlled. They will think
the police are out to get them and will
treat them badly if they speak out. They
will be living in fear. They have been
groomed and brainwashed into that
life. We need to be asking the questions.
We need to look out for each other. We
need to pay attention. There is more
and more modern slavery.?
An all-party group of MPs began an
inquiry into the pop-up brothel trend in
October after police reported a
growing problem in seaside towns such
as Newquay, in Cornwall, as well as
suburban or rural towns and villages.
Mr Paterson for cremation
Gabriella Bennett
A father was almost cremated by the
wrong family because an undertaker
picked up the wrong body from
hospital.
Greater Glasgow?s health board is
investigating after the body of the
wrong William Paterson was taken
away by Co-op Funeralcare.
Mr Paterson, 56, died on November
20 of pneumonia, a complication of
lung cancer and a stroke. His body was
due to be picked up from the Queen
Elizabeth University Hospital, Govan,
for burial by David Robb Funeral
Directors on November 25. The company?s owner discovered it had been
taken away three days earlier and went
to the Glasgow Co-op to investigate.
David Robb said: ?When I arrived at
the Co-op I saw that there was a
William Paterson in a coffin, sealed and
ready to go for cremation. As soon as I
opened the casket I knew it was him; he
is the double of his son. If I had decided
to take that weekend off there is an
extremely high chance that it would
have been too late.?
The other Mr Paterson?s body was
still at the hospital and both funerals
were able to go ahead.
Mr Paterson?s family is awaiting the
conclusion of the investigation. His
daughter Claire, 33, a taxi driver, said:
?It is hard enough to lose your father
but it feels like we are unable to move on
at the moment.?
A spokeswoman for the health board
apologised and said it was ?a genuine
error?. A spokeswoman for the Co-op
also apologised.
26
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
News
Grenfell firm hands over
control of 9,000 homes
Dominic Kennedy, Maryse Godden
The company that ran Grenfell Tower
is to stop managing its 9,000 homes.
Residents expressed alarm at the
unexpected withdrawal of the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management
Organisation (KCTMO), which is
being investigated by Scotland Yard on
suspicion of the corporate manslaughter of the 71 victims of the fire. Letters
saying that temporary control would be
handed to the local council were sent to
tenants on Friday, the last working day
before Christmas.
There was anxiety that KCTMO
appeared to be renouncing control
before residents had been able to have
any input on the future of housing in
the London borough.
At its annual meeting in October, the
organisation had tried to hand full
control to Kensington and Chelsea
council, in effect removing tenant representatives from its board. Critics
feared that this was an abuse of process
because the Conservative-run council
is also under investigation for alleged
corporate manslaughter. They were
also suspicious that the local authority
might shut down the KCTMO, which
would then be unavailable to be sued or
to assist with the inquiry. The council
denied any such intentions but the
decision was shelved.
Joe Delaney, who represents residents on an official scrutiny committee
monitoring the response to the disaster,
said tenants were told that they would
be consulted about the management of
the housing stock before any decisions
were taken. Mr Delaney said: ?The
Royal Borough of Kensington and
Chelsea hasn?t even shown the capacity
to deal with the Grenfell disaster, so
how can it demonstrate that it has
capacity to bring stuff in-house??
Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader of
the council, said it was taking back
control before a consultation on a
long-term solution for housing management in the borough. He said: ?The
TMO has lost the trust of residents, the
council and government, so today?s
news should go some way towards restoring confidence that the management and maintenance of social housing in the borough is being thoroughly
reviewed and reformed.?
The council said that members of
KCTMO?s board of directors could still
be questioned by the Grenfell Tower
inquiry and the organisation could be
prosecuted by police if evidence of
wrongdoing were found, or be sued as
part of a civil claim.
Rail passengers promised video streaming
Oliver Wright Policy Editor
Ministers are promising to tackle poor
mobile phone and internet coverage
across the rail network.
Installing fibre optic cables along the
busiest train routes and connecting
them to wireless devices on masts are
among the proposals in a consultation
document. It is claimed that the work
would provide an internet speed of
about one gigabit per second ? enough
for several hundred passengers to
stream video content simultaneously.
The government has set a deadline of
2025 to complete the work which will
be targeted first at the busiest routes. In
the past minimum connectivity stan-
dards were set for train operating companies applying for new rail franchises,
but these were seen as unambitious.
No new money has yet been committed to pay for the cable network. A pilot
for the route between Manchester and
York is being funded from the government?s � billion National Productivity
Investment Fund.
Putting their feet up Backstage at Edinburgh?s Festival Theatre for Scottish Ballet?s
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
27
2G M
News
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP
Acid attack inmate
hid phone in crutch
John Simpson Crime Correspondent
production of The Nutcracker, the tale of a young girl?s Christmas adventure danced to Tchaikovsky?s magnificent score
A drug dealer who maimed more than
a dozen clubbers in an acid attack has
admitted smuggling a mobile phone
into prison inside a crutch.
Arthur Collins, 25, claimed he had
stashed the phone, two Sim cards, two
USB sticks and two chargers inside the
crutch to make private calls to Ferne
McCann, a reality TV star with whom
he has a daughter.
A prison officer searching Collins?s
private shower at HMP Thameside in
London removed a rubber stopper on
the bottom of the crutch in September
while he was awaiting trial for the
attack at the Mangle E8 club in
Dalston, east London.
Collins, who was said in court to be
involved in a series of gangland incidents, sprayed a corrosive substance
over a crowd at the packed nightclub in
April, injuring at least 16 people and
leaving many with scars to the face or
upper body. He was jailed for 20 years at
Wood Green crown court last week.
Appearing via videolink from HMP
Belmarsh, where he is serving his
sentence, he admitted one charge of
possession of a prohibited item while in
prison. Wearing a prison-issue yellow
and blue tracksuit he spoke only to confirm his identity.
He had sent messages and made calls
to his family and Ms McCann, Bromley
magistrates? court heard.
District judge Robert Hunter com-
mitted Collins?s case to Woolwich
crown court for sentencing on a date to
be fixed.
Collins had been using the crutch
after hurting his foot attempting to flee
police in his underwear having spent a
week on the run. He was tasered and
arrested after jumping out of a firstfloor window in Higham Ferrers,
Northamptonshire. Searches of his
home uncovered a cannabis farm and
other evidence of drug dealing.
Audrey Mogan, for the defence, said
that he obtained the phone so he could
Arthur Collins is
serving 20 years in
jail for a nightclub
attack in April
make private calls to Ms McCann. ?His
partner at the time was heavily pregnant . . . There was a phone in the cell
but he knows the calls are recorded.
Because of that he was afraid that information would get out to the media.?
The hearing came a day after Ms
McCann spoke publicly for the first
time since he was jailed. The Only Way
is Essex star criticised his actions and
told ITV that their daughter, Sunday,
had helped her through difficult times.
Collins would have been eligible for
parole in ten years, but the latest
confession could extend his jail time.
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the times | Thursday December 28 2017
31
2G M
Armed forces must focus
on frontline talent
Elisabeth Braw
Page 32
Comment
Obama?s right: hashtags can?t change the world
The ex-president recognises the ills of social media but is wrong to think that polarised opinion began with the internet
WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
David
Aaronovitch
@daaronovitch
B
arack Obama being
interviewed by Prince Harry
was always likely to sound
like one of those strange
mash-ups such as Pride and
Prejudice and Zombies. Obama was
elected twice by tens of millions of
people to the highest office in the
world?s most powerful country.
Prince Harry will soon become sixth
in line to the throne ? and someone
called James, Viscount Severn is, I
am told, tenth and I have never even
heard of him. Only an avalanche at
Courchevel or a catastrophic fullfamily bobsleigh failure at Paradiski
could do much to alter his chances.
So the amiable Harry wisely
decided that it was Barack?s call and
let him riff for half an hour on this
and that, touching on themes such as
?the young?, ?social media? and
?doing good things?. It was not a
hard gig: the man only had to open
his mouth to remind listeners that
we had gone if not from Hyperion to
a satyr, then at least from someone
who managed not to gratuitously
insult a new nation or another
people every morning before
breakfast to someone who does.
But naturally, though the word
Trump was never used and its
embodiment never mentioned
(Harry can?t do that, can he?), his
reality haunted the discussion. There
was, I think, a hidden theme running
like invisible lettering through the
candy: how can we not let this
happen again? Whatever it was that
caused all this, how can we do better
next time?
Barack, now a sage in his fifties,
scratched his grey head. In the olden
days, he said, we in America had
three TV stations. True, you had
conservatives and liberals (Yank for
right and left) but ?everybody had a
common set of facts. People could
agree on a baseline of reality.? But
today, with the internet, ?people can
have a different reality. They can be
cocooned in information that
reinforces their current biases.? The
result was a ?Balkanisation? of
society in which it was harder and
harder to find common ground.
All-encompassing but still vaguely
mystical, the internet is a useful
scapegoat for the ills of modern
society. But in fact the polarisation
so often ascribed to the web was well
under way before Mark Zuckerberg
hit puberty and exists even where
social media is unimportant. I
remember in the summer of 2004 I
went to Colorado to look for clues in
Polarisation is, for some
quite powerful people,
a useful political tool
the run-up to the Bush-Kerry
election. In downtown Denver they
have one of the most delightful
bookshops in the world, the Tattered
Cover. On either side of the till I
noticed a different pile of books. On
one side the books all had titles and
sub-titles like Selling America: How
the Clintons Destroyed the Union and
on the other Bane of the Nation: How
the Bush Dynasty Betrayed the People.
Research by The New York Times
established that just about no one
who bought and read a book on one
side would also buy and read one on
the other.
Or take Alabama 2017. A few
weeks ago Judge Roy Moore stood
in and very narrowly lost a Senate
by-election in that staunch
Republican state. Though he was a
Republican the party itself thought
he was too extreme, he faced
credible accusations of making
sexual advances to underage girls
and he refused so much as to
debate with his Democratic rival. He
went down by just 20,000 votes in
1.3 million.
Alabama has seven congressional
districts. Remarkably, had the same
voters cast ballots for the same
parties in a congressional election,
the Republicans would have won six
of them. How is that possible?
Simple, they?re gerrymandered. One
district, the 7th, has been so
constructed as to include a third of
all the black voters in the state. On a
map it looks like an octopus, sending
tentacles way out from its body so as
to take in distant black suburbs. The
result is to create one ultra-safe
Democratic seat and six pretty damn
safe Republican ones.
That?s a disgrace, of course. You
wonder how our American cousins
allow it (and they?ll probably retort
with something about Prince Harry).
But think about the consequences.
The six Republicans have very little
need to worry about the problems or
the wishes of the 30 per cent of
inhabitants of Alabama who are
black. And Terri Sewell, the one
Democrat, would be suicidal to
spend a moment thinking of how to
create a coalition with white voters.
It?s Northern Ireland before 1968.
And more of America is becoming
like this and has been for decades.
People move to the place where folk
are like them and not like those
others. All of it without much help
from the internet or social media.
Indeed you could argue that, for the
that paragraph, but what the former
president went on to say to the
prince yesterday was that to improve
things you have to find common
ground between people, and to do
that they have to encounter each
other. Nor could that just be done
online, because ?raising a hashtag
itself is not a way of bringing about
change?. People have to meet. Ideas
have to be exchanged. Even where
it?s sometimes true, resorting to
calling someone else a name has to
be resisted.
This week I interviewed an
American academic who had left
The US working class
is culturally insulted in
a way few others are
Barack Obama suggested technology
allows us to lead more isolated lives
young at least, social media offers
the possibility of looking beyond
their immediate circumstances.
The other thing is that polarisation
is, for some quite powerful people, a
useful political tool. It was once a
tactic, now elevated to a strategy.
Take the Reesmoggrification of the
ruling classes. In the last couple of
years the domestic political scene
has reverberated to the squeaks and
rumbles of public schoolboys,
educated at significant expense by
parents specifically to spare them
even the most minimal contact with
the great unwashed, brazenly allying
themselves with those same people.
Thus do politicians and scribblers
formerly of Eton and the like ride
out under the banner of the proles to
do battle with the metropolitan elite.
Now, I might feel better for writing
California to study Trump voters.
The traditional American working
class, she said, were being culturally
insulted in a way few other groups
were, and they resented it. Like?
Like Homer Simpson, she replied.
Imagine looking at him and
knowing he?s supposed to be a
guy like you.
In some countries (but by no
means all), demographics favour
the more liberal, more tolerant and
more ?sophisticated? (Obama?s
word) and we could let the most
natural of natural wastages do
the work. We can wait for the
Homers to die, but that would be
wrong of us. Better to try harder to
live together.
red box
For the best analysis
and commentary on
the political landscape
thetimes.co.uk
32
1G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Comment
Armed forces must focus on frontline talent
Top-heavy military should shift attention and resources to lower-ranking officers and troops
Elisabeth
Braw
@elisabethbraw
W
hile most of us are
enjoying a
post-turkey break,
several thousand
British troops are
serving abroad. Eight hundred are in
Estonia as part of Nato?s Enhanced
Forward Presence. Others are
training security forces in
Afghanistan, while yet another
contingent is in Iraq. British troops
serve in sub-Saharan Africa, the
Middle East and Central America. In
2015-16 23,120 British troops served
on foreign deployments, many of
them doing more than one tour.
When armed forces deploy, it
means mostly soldiers and junior
officers. The Enhanced Forward
Presence battlegroup in Estonia,
Nato?s first line of defence in case of
a Russian attack, is led by a
lieutenant-colonel, a position
generally held by those in their late
thirties or early forties. As instability
increases in Europe and beyond,
ordinary soldiers and young officers
will become even more important.
In 1942 Aaron Copland, the
American composer, wrote Fanfare
for the Common Man, a response to
the United States? entry into the
Second World War. What we need
now is a fanfare for the common
soldier. Defence ministers, generals
and admirals are, of course,
important in the conduct of
international relations. But it?s the
troops on the ground ? soldiers,
sergeants, captains, majors ? who
shape the local reality. ?The clich� of
the strategic corporal [the idea that
in combat even a corporal makes
strategic decisions] didn?t come out
of nowhere,? says Ewan Lawson, a
former Royal Air Force officer who is
now a senior research fellow at the
Royal United Services Institute.
If Lieutenant-Colonel Owain Luke,
commander of the Enhanced
Forward Presence battlegroup in
Estonia, misinterprets a hostile
situation, Nato will be in trouble. In
Iraq and Afghanistan, army captains
negotiate with village elders. It?s the
62,000-odd American troops serving
in Europe, not tweets from Donald
Trump, who define the US?s military
relationship with its European allies.
Faulty equipment and
lack of exercises scare
off potential recruits
Yet despite their crucial role, soldiers,
non-commissioned officers (NCOs)
and junior officers routinely get the
short end of the attention stick.
?Somewhere we have forgotten that
it?s the fighting units that constitute a
healthy military organisation,? says
Major-General Karlis Neretnieks, a
former commandant of the Swedish
Defence University. ?Practical
training and exercises are the
cornerstone of fighting power.?
Here?s a snapshot of the reality for
fighting forces: in Germany, only 48
per cent of the Bundeswehr?s Puma
infantry fighting vehicles and 31 per
cent of its NH90 helicopters were
reported as usable earlier this year.
All six of the Royal Navy?s destroyers
have been moored in Portsmouth. In
the UK and other Nato countries,
troops wait for long periods between
exercises. Pilots need more flying
hours. ?We need qualified people to
operate and maintain our
equipment,? Lawson says. ?If you?re
an engineer on a destroyer, you don?t
want to sit around in Portsmouth.?
General Vincenzo Camporini, an
Italian former chief of defence,
points out that the rule of thumb is
that 50 per cent of a healthy defence
budget is spent on personnel, 25 per
cent on procurement and
modernisation and another 25 per
cent on maintenance and training.
?But many European countries
spend 60-70 per cent on salaries,
while they rarely spend more than
15 per cent on maintenance and
training,? he says. ?As a result, troops
generally don?t have training and the
average availability of equipment is
sometimes as low as 30 per cent. In
essence, we pay our soldiers, NCOs
and officers fairly well, but don?t care
about what they?re supposed to do.?
It?s time to think about our
top-heavy military structures.
?Rather than focus on recruiting
bright young people, the answer to
all military capability challenges
seems to be a new two-star
headquarters [headquarters led by a
two-star general],? Lawson says.
?But that means we?re building
administration rather than troop
capacity. The number of stars we
have in relation to the number of
troops is out of balance.?
Such so-called star creep is not
unique to the UK. In the current
issue of Joint Force Quarterly, a
military journal published by the US
National Defence University, Colonel
Gregory C. McCarthy of the US
Marine Corps notes that between
2001 and 2011 the number of
three- and four-star generals and
their navy counterparts grew by
almost 25 per cent, while the number
of enlisted soldiers increased by
2.5 per cent. In today?s US armed
forces, Colonel McCarthy points out,
there is one general or admiral per
1,400 troops. During the Second
World War, the ratio was one to
6,000. One general and his
supporting staff cost almost
$1 million a year.
Military operations have, of
course, changed. Today we need
more senior staff who can
co-ordinate our increasingly
complex deterrence and missions.
But on the ground we still rely on
troops. Most European countries
need more of them but above all we
need to make sure the best men and
women join our armed forces and
stay there. Faulty equipment, lack of
exercises and star creep scare off
potential recruits and cause attrition.
So let?s give not just a fanfare but a
proper set-up to the troops spending
their Christmas and many other days
keeping us safe. Lieutenant-Colonel
Luke, we?re counting on you to know
what to do in Tapa, Estonia.
hard to know who the victim is.
Mockery is how men express their
affection for one another. For saying
that I will rightly be torn apart when
we meet up in the new year ?
though definitely not in Chiswick.
it low. And I?m really not keen on
shaking hands any more.
I once interviewed Donald Trump
and registered my surprise when he
shook my hand, as I had read he had
a phobia about doing so. ?Well you
look like a nice clean guy,? he said.
Mick Jagger didn?t think so. I was
with half a dozen men at Lord?s one
year and after he had shaken our
hands a minion rushed over and
squirted antibacterial cream into his
palm. I asked Sir Mick why and he
said he was on tour and couldn?t risk
getting a cold. Now I wonder if he?s a
fellow Lady Macbeth.
Elisabeth Braw is non-resident senior
fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank
Jenni Russell is away
Nigel Farndale Notebook
Making a
mockery of
my attempt
at banter
I?
m worried about the fall-off in
quality of my attempts at email
banter. Jamie suggested that
?the lads?, as middle-aged men
are required by law to call
themselves, meet in a pub in
Chiswick on January 10. Well he
would, wouldn?t he. He lives there.
Dom was first on the attack: ?From
East Dulwich that?s three days? ride
with fresh horses.?
I was walking through Waterloo at
the time but joined in with a ?reply
all? from my iPhone. ?From
Hampshire it?s six weeks under sail
with a fair wind.?
As soon as I sent it I realised my
email was lame and I would be
savaged for it. I acted pre-emptively:
?Tell me honestly, was Dom?s fresh
horses thing better than my sailing
thing? It was, wasn?t it??
Ping. It was Chris: ?It wasn?t that it
was less funny (although, for the
record, it wasn?t funny at all), the
more pertinent issue here is that
Dom?s idea was original. You might
argue you ?ran with a theme?, but it?s
really time for you to find your own
voice now. We all believe there is one
there, we saw some of it the last time
we met up, little hints that one day
you might make someone laugh, but
we do feel it?s time for you to put in
the hard yards.?
Pete, who had been quiet for a few
days after sending out a rather
good spoof letter in which he
claimed to have been arrested
for sexual harassment in
Alabama, now joined in.
?Nige, your appeal to me that
I find you funny comes days
after I sent you and the
others an email I spent
over an hour on;
sourcing an official
letterhead from
Judge Roy S Moore,
screen-grabbing it,
pasting, matching
typeface (as best I
could), drafting,
proofing,
scanning with
signature. After all
that raw effort, what
was the response
from you or anyone?
Nothing.?
So it went on. The
#stopspeaksupport
campaign might call it
online bullying, but it?s
Battle of wits
M
y wife, an occasional smoker
who wishes she wasn?t: ?Will
you destroy that packet of
fags I?ve hidden in the kitchen,
please??
Me: ?Only if you destroy that
bloody tin of Quality Street.?
Pause as she opens the lid:
?Looks like you already
have.?
This is how we
prepare the
psychological ground
for New Year?s Day.
Filthy-minded
H
ow insidious is
the creep of a
phobia into
one?s life. Lately I
find myself
adopting
procedures for
dealing with
handrails on the
Tube ? the tugged
down sleeve, the lifted
coat hem. If it?s a
lavatory door with a
long handle I will hold
Flight of fancy
W
hile dog-walking I listen to
audiobooks through
headphones. The trouble is
I sometimes laugh out loud, as with
Alexei Sayle?s Stalin Ate My
Homework, and that makes me
sound like a morning drinker. A safer
bet, I thought, would be Bomber
Command by Max Hastings. But no.
Bomber Command once accidentally
bombed a Fighter Command airfield.
Fighter Command acknowledged the
mistake by dropping Iron Crosses on
the Bomber Command airfield. No
wonder we won the war.
Janice Turner is away
@nigelfarndale
Calorie-counting
bureaucracy could
end up eating itself
Tom Whipple
B
ritons are used to being told
to eat like other nations.
Beauty gurus tell us we
should dine like the French
to keep our waistlines in
check. Doctors suggest we should
switch to a Mediterranean diet to
ward off cancer. Oddly though, no
one has thought to recommend
eating like a Zambian. Until now.
Public Health England (PHE) is
set to introduce new calorie
guidelines. Instead of 2,000 a day for
women and 2,500 for men, it will
reportedly recommend that both
sexes limit themselves to 1,800.
Let no one say that state
bureaucracies lack ambition. If they
were to achieve this goal then in
terms of calorie intake it would put
us among the top five most svelte
nations in the world, from 162nd
today. At last, we could sneer at the
bingo wings of those notorious
fatties, the Ethiopians (2,131 kcal/
day), and laugh at the gluttony of the
renowned tubbers of North Korea
(2,094 kcal/day). Meanwhile, we
could also aspire to the beach-ready
bodies of Eritreans (1,590 kcal/day in
2008, 50 per cent of children under
five stunted), and the toned abs of
Haitians, who as well as taking a
relatively healthy 2,091 calories per
day also keep themselves in shape
with semi-regular food riots.
Of course, PHE does not really
want us to eat 1,800 calories a day. It
must realise that the figure is both
unachievable and unsustainable. Like
a good nanny it is instead telling a
little white lie: it knows that if we
actually aim for 1,800 calories, we
might at least bring our national
average below 3,000.
But do we really need a
government body to lie to us? You
don?t have to be a cigarette-smoking,
hot dog-eating libertarian to think
that scientific guidelines should be
just that: scientific.
This is not the only example. If
2018 is set to be the year the public
health campaigners go for food, 2016
was when they went for booze. Then,
PHE took advantage of our January
hangovers to tell us that any quantity
of alcohol was unsafe, and that if we
really must drink, both sexes should
stop at 14 units a week. Impressively,
the appendix to their own
recommendations showed that a
small amount of alcohol is beneficial
to health and that men have a
greater tolerance. Yet, as with
calories, where every study has
shown that men need to eat more,
for the sake of simplicity or rhetoric
they ignored this.
Public health campaigners may
argue that the means justify the
ends. If they keep it up though they
could find out that there is
something worse than being accused
of scaremongering or even
pseudoscience: being ignored
entirely.
Tom Whipple is science editor
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
33
1G M
Comment
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There?s no shame in celebrating May 1940
Churchill?s stand against Nazism is a glorious subject for a film and we should join Americans in cheering for it
Iain
Martin
@iainmartin1
T
he latest cinematic
portrayal of Winston
Churchill?s wartime heroics
is out in the US and already
it is stoking conflict, with
over-excited politicians keen to draw
contemporary parallels. Mike
Huckabee, former governor of
Arkansas and a prominent supporter
of the current US president, emerged
from a screening of Darkest Hour to
declare that Donald Trump is
America?s Winston Churchill.
British cinemagoers may have a
quite different take, although we will
have to wait until January 12 to see
the film. But as an early warning
signal, the Huckabee tweet is the
social media equivalent of an air-raid
siren going off, alerting us to a fresh
outbreak of hostilities in the
perennial British argument about
whether we are too obsessed by the
tale of plucky Britain standing alone
in May 1940.
This time the battle is bound to be
filtered through Brexit; everything
must be at the moment, it seems.
Indeed, the heart sinks at the
thought of the bombardment of
whining commentary and BBC
Radio 4 discussion that is about to be
unleashed in response to the release
of the film, in which Churchill is
played by Gary Oldman.
Some of the agonising will no
doubt be pegged on the bizarre
Remainer myth that Leavers are
obsessed with the Second World War
and with recreating the British
Empire that Churchill cherished. Yet
no one who supports leaving the
European Union thinks Brexit is an
imperial or martial project.
Still, at root what we are arguing
about when we British debate May
Huckabee?s reading
of history is more
than a little garbled
1940 is the charge that we cling to a
simplistic national myth that is a
comforting but unreliable guide to
what is needed in the future. It is
a fair criticism that we overdo it
sometimes and Huckabee?s tweet
demonstrates the risks of using
ropey history to make a
contemporary point.
?Churchill was hated by his own
party, opposition party, and press,?
Huckabee tweeted. ?Feared by King
as reckless, and despised for his
bluntness. But unlike Neville
Chamberlain, he didn?t retreat. We
had a Chamberlain for 8 yrs; in
@realDonaldTrump we have
a Churchill.?
Huckabee?s reading of history is
more than a little garbled. George VI
did fear Churchill, with considerable
justification because the new prime
minister in May 1940 was someone
who had been reckless in many of his
policy choices for three decades.
Contrary to Huckabee?s assertion,
far from Churchill being universally
hated by the press, he was friends
with several of the most powerful
press barons and wrote his way out
of near bankruptcy by appearing at
length in newspapers. And Churchill
did permit retreat, several times,
reluctantly but sensibly, when there
was no other option.
As for Trump being the new
Churchill, the polite British response
is that it is too early to say. Churchill
was fascinated by technology, by
communication, by the generation of
pithy phrases and by the glamour of
American society, so it seems likely
that if it had existed he would have
been an even more potent user of
Twitter than Trump: ?From Stettin in
the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,
an Iron Curtain has descended
across the Continent. Sad!?
Yes, Churchill was a complex
figure who made mistakes but the
reputation for greatness is deserved.
Yet there is something about the
magnificence of his central
achievement at a defining hour in
1940 that seems to drive Britain?s
alleged intelligentsia round the bend
whenever it reappears as a theme in
popular culture.
The Observer newspaper was still
complaining in its anti-Brexit
As Orwell understood,
the uplifting tale of
1940 is not a Tory story
editorial this week that the film
Dunkirk, released five months ago,
dressed up British failure as a
triumph. No sane observer thinks
that the evacuation at Dunkirk
ordered by Churchill was a
magnificent victory but in the
context of such epoch-defining
turmoil it was a triumph. Against a
superior force, the British got
enough men away to regroup and
fight the Nazis. What, as they say, is
not to like?
Of course, some on the left have
long sneered at expressions of
patriotism, as George Orwell noted:
?England is perhaps the only great
country whose intellectuals are
ashamed of their own nationality?.
The sneering part of the left still gets
it dead wrong. As Orwell understood,
the uplifting tale of 1940 is not a
Tory story. Churchill was a Tory,
turned Liberal, turned Tory again,
but Labour?s Major Attlee and his
colleagues joined a national
government. They found common
cause fighting a war of national and
civilisational survival that Britain
had sought to avoid.
In that respect, Huckabee?s tweet
even managed to get Chamberlain
and Churchill?s relationship wrong.
On Chamberlain?s death in
November 1940, the prime minister
eulogised him as a sincere and
decent man misled by the monster
Adolf Hitler.
The enduring power of May 1940,
as history and fable, and the reason
it has turned into a global parable for
collective fortitude in the face
hardship, is that Churchill got one of
the biggest calls in modern history
completely right.
If he and his fellow Britons had
not fought on then Europe would be
very different today. It was
civilisation versus the barbarians.
A bully was on the rampage and
our ancestors retreated and then
fought back.
There are few finer achievements
in our history and Churchill?s resolve
is worth celebrating time and again.
34
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
1G M
Letters to the Editor should be sent to
letters@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
Letters to the Editor
Solutions to the menace of urban foxes
Great Plague burial
Sir, Ben Macintyre (Comment, Dec
23, and letter, Dec 27) is correct to
point to the relatively orderly reaction
from Londoners to the devastating
nature of these outbreaks, but these
ideas predated the Great Plague and
were not, in fact, English in design.
English state-regulated measures to
quarantine infected houses date from
as early as 1517, when they were
trialled at Windsor Castle in an
attempt to keep out beggars, and were
later implemented in London and
Oxford in 1518.
Such ideas about quarantine,
however, had been common on the
Continent since the first European
plague pandemics of 1348, and they
were in all likelihood imported from
Europe, reaching even Edinburgh and
Glasgow before being widely adopted
in England. Even then, Tudor
Londoners showed a particularly
English trait in grumbling over the
outcome, claiming that the state was
out to ?utterly destroy? business by
cancelling their regular markets.
dr euan c roger
Medieval historian, Dorking, Surrey
Religious literacy
Sir, The proposed increase in the
BBC?s coverage of religion is welcome
(letter, Dec 23). However, if we are
concerned about declining religious
literacy at a time when religion is such
an important cultural influence
domestically and a political force
internationally, should we not also
reinforce religious knowledge in our
educational system? At present
religious education is a statutary
subject but is not part of the national
curriculum, so it has to be taught but
not necessarily in a particular way.
The result is that many schools teach
only one faith, while many others find
ways of bypassing it. Instead, all pupils
should be obliged to know about the
major faiths, both as a matter of
general knowledge and as a way of
promoting social cohesion in the UK.
If it is important for viewers, then how
much more so for the next generation?
rabbi dr jonathan romain
Maidenhead Synagogue, Berks
Sir, It will doubtless come as news to
farming communities up and down
the country to hear that ?urban foxes,
not rural ones, are the problem these
days? (?Let?s rid our cities of the urban
fox menace?, Comment, Dec 26).
Foxes can undoubtedly be a pest in
residential urban areas but in the
countryside they cause real damage to
small farmers? livelihoods, notably by
wreaking havoc on poultry and lambs.
Rachel Sylvester?s blithe suggestion
that urban foxes, many of which are
by then diseased, should be dumped
back in the countryside for rural
people to deal with (though not, of
course, by hunting with hounds) is all
too typical of the dismissiveness of
rural communities? interests displayed
by metropolitan pundits and
politicians. For far too long
government policy has been skewed
towards the urban population while
neglecting or actively disadvantaging
country folk (public transport and the
roll-out of broadband being just two
crucial examples). It?s high time that
governments of all political
persuasions started to do things for
rural people, rather than to them.
nigel henson
Farningham, Kent
Sir, It?s easy to spot the urban foxes
that have been ?encouraged back to
the countryside?, as Rachel Sylvester
suggests. Come harvest they trot
along the tracks in my corn, 30 or 40
yards in front of my combine
harvester, looking confused and
bewildered. As they emerge from the
standing crop their confusion is
brought to a violent and undignified
end by a twelve-bore ? not quite the
idyllic new rural existence that I
suspect Ms Sylvester had in mind.
charlie flindt
Hinton Ampner, Hants
Defence of debate
whom we disagree, and whom we will
criticise in seminars and publications.
However, hostile open letters of this
kind are not the way to deal with
academic disagreement: they are
deeply corrosive of normal academic
exchange and simply encourage more
of the online mobbing, public
shaming and political polarisation
that have sadly characterised this
debate from the outset.
dr alexander morrison
Fellow and tutor in history,
New College, Oxford
Sir, As a historian of empire working
at the University of Oxford I am
concerned and bewildered by the
response to Nigel Biggar?s Comment
article (Nov 30) by some of my
colleagues in the history faculty. I do
not agree with everything Professor
Biggar wrote in that piece either, but I
know him to be a scholar of distinction
and integrity whose research deserves
careful and considered scholarly
engagement. I do not find this in
either the tone, content or medium of
the critique of both his article and his
project on ?Ethics and Empire? that
several of my colleagues have chosen
to sign (?Oxford academics attack
professor who defended colonialism?,
News, Dec 21). Instead they are
dismissing out of hand ? and seeking
to sabotage ? a research project in a
discipline that is not their own before
it has even begun.
Having a diversity of views,
opinions and disciplinary approaches
is the lifeblood of any university: we
will always have colleagues with
Letters to The Times must be exclusive
and may be edited. Please incude a full
address and daytime telephone number.
Corrections and
clarifications
6 We stated that the adoption by
George and Amal Clooney of a Basset
hound mix was arranged by the
Company of Dogs (?Meet Coco ? the
rescue dog living in the lap of luxury?,
News, Dec 27). It was not. The error
was introduced during editing.
The Times takes complaints about
editorial content seriously. We are
committed to abiding by the
Independent Press Standards
Organisation (?IPSO?) rules and
regulations and the Editors? Code of
Practice that IPSO enforces.
Requests for corrections or
clarifications should be sent by email to
feedback@thetimes.co.uk or by post to
Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge
Street, London SE1 9GF
on this day december 28, 1917
ARMY HORSES
AND
SHELL SHOCK
An officer in the Royal Army
Medical Corps in a letter home
writes: I am sure you would like the
Army horses in Flanders. They are
the most beautiful things in the
country, especially the draught
horses, for they do a job of work.
Saddle horses are lovely to look at
but they, like the cavalry, are simply
not in it in this war, and this robs
them of their charm just now, when
everyone and everything is judged
Sir, Rachel Sylvester is right to draw
attention to the menace posed by
urban foxes not only as garden
wreckers and fly-tippers but as
purveyors of disease through their
droppings. However, she omits to
mention the threat posed by the
(albeit unlikely) arrival of rabies in the
urban fox population. When rabies
was first perceived as a threat about
30 or 40 years ago there was not
much of an ?urban? fox population ?
unlike today. An outbreak of this
terrible disease in the urban
population of foxes today is almost
too ghastly to contemplate and the
Sir, Those who signed the recent
attack on the attempt to conduct
research into ?colonialism? and
?empire? seem to have forgotten the
importance to a free society of places
where ideas (whether popular or not)
can be looked at from all angles.
These are subjects that need to be
thought about in the context of the
assumptions of many ages and a wide
variety of disciplines, not constrained
by ideas that happen to be
fashionable now and are within one
school of thought. This is not healthy
academic disagreement but an
by his job of work. Unspoilt by
blinkers, their winter coats ?
innocent often of clippers ? add to
their looks. That they keep so fit and
in such condition is due to the
excellence of their forage and the
care of their drivers. And the
devotion of the men is wonderful:
they will not leave their charges, and
often are transferred with them
when they are sent to other units.
There is a great difference in the
horses as they go in and come out of
the line. Full of fire and beans,
conscious of excellent grooming and
clean wagons and polished harness,
they seem impatient to drag their
guns from the comforts of French
billets to the unknown discomfort of
the line. But when they come out
they are plastered with mud and
very tired, and show no interest in
the teams that pass them on their
way up. A gunner told me an
interesting story of shell shock in his
team ? how they were sheltering
under a wall when a shell exploded
among them, but miraculously
escaped unharmed. Never again
would this gun team approach that
sooner they are removed from our
towns and cities the better.
stephen pocock
Faversham, Kent
Sir, We had the same problem as
Rachel Sylvester. The local council
did not want to know and the RSPCA
told us it was illegal to destroy foxes
(we later learnt this was not true). In
the end we paid for a pest controller
to remove the foxes, which cost a few
hundred pounds. We also asked the
local hardware store about fox
repellent and were told to pour men?s
urine round the borders of the
garden. Although it sounded like an
old wives? tale, it worked.
gillian rich
Eastbourne
Sir, On Christmas Day, from my
mother?s kitchen window in suburban
London, we saw a malnourished and
mangy fox brazenly looking at us as
he ate the bird food. Feeling pity, we
put out all the leftovers from our
mother?s excellent lunch. Today we
see that he?s eaten everything ?
except the brussels sprouts.
rory newman
Margate, Kent
attempt to intimidate researchers into
excluding all but a particular view. It
is dangerous to academic freedom
because it is a reminder of eras and
societies that previously allowed
purges of those holding unacceptable
options. The 58 signatories of the
open letter would do well not to cut
themselves off from the larger
company of academics who remain
open to free inquiry.
g r evans
Emeritus professor of medieval
theology and intellectual history,
University of Cambridge
Sir, If the 58 Oxford academics were
to be true to their calling, they would
recognise with gratitude that the
educational systems now in place
across the Commonwealth derive
almost wholly from Britain, most
notably from the immensely
influential London University External
degree which enabled, on a global
scale, the establishment of university
colleges which have since become the
Commonwealth?s universities of today.
professor sir bryan thwaites
Fishbourne, W Sussex
wall without quivering and falling
down, or hear an approaching shell
without showing the same symptoms
as a soldier might.
Never will a horse forget any place
where he has been wounded. When
he is taking ammunition up to a
battery he will shiver and tremble
and hurry past any spot where,
perhaps months before, he stopped a
bit of shrapnel. Very quick are they
to spot a near approaching shell; and
on an exposed road on their way up
they duck their heads and drop on
their knees, and even lie down, when
they see their drivers taking cover to
avoid a dangerously close one.
A good horse is a treasure and a
bad one only fit to lose ? as many
horses are ?lost? by their drivers so
that fresh ones may be drawn from
?remounts?. But still, the revolver is
the most commonly used veterinary
medicine, as it is the most efficient.
sign up for a weekly email
with extracts from
the times history of the war
ww1.thetimes.co.uk
Bodyline behaviour
Sir, As an expatriate Australian I
wholeheartedly agree with Mike
Atherton?s call, ?Umpires must protect
tail from bodyline? (Dec 21). I have
always felt that a fast bowler
terrorising late-order batsmen is
unwittingly admitting failure ? that
he has given up on seeking results by
the traditional means of varied angle
of delivery, movement in the air or off
the pitch, extra bounce or sheer pace,
turning instead to physical and mental
intimidation. Original ?Bodyline? has
always been of personal interest, as
my headmaster for some years was
the Australian captain of that series,
Bill Woodfull. Douglas Jardine?s
ruthless attack was aimed via
Larwood, Voce and Bowes primarily
at the batsmen of the 1932-33
Australian Eleven, not the tail. Steve
Smith should rethink his instructions
to his pace bowlers, who are surely
capable of dismissing Ball, Broad,
Anderson, etc, by legitimate means.
murray hedgcock
London SW14
African plastic ban
Sir, Apropos the ban on plastic bags in
Kenya (letter, Dec 27), no one is
allowed to take plastic bags into
Rwanda. Before you can disembark at
the airport, you have to leave all
plastic bags on the plane.
jo love
Broadway, Worcs
Ban on Christmas
Sir, Contrary to Daisy Goodwin?s
assertion (?How Albert invented
Christmas?, Saturday Review, Dec 23)
that Oliver Cromwell ?banned?
Christmas, may I assure your readers
that he did not. Although a ban of the
celebration of Christmas and other
holy days is something that he may
well have supported ? as did many
others at the time of the ban by
parliament in 1644 ? to lay the
blame at Cromwell?s door is unfair.
john goldsmith
Chairman, The Cromwell Association
Nothing to declare
Sir, The mention of being limited to
two bottles of wine when returning
from the Continent (letter, Dec 27)
reminded me of arriving at Dover
after a day trip to France with a school
party. When asked if we teachers had
anything to declare, we replied:
?Twelve bottles of wine and 60
teenagers.? The customs officials felt
that we more than deserved the wine
and refused to charge us the duty.
carol chambers-workman
Horsham, W Sussex
Delightful Dennis
Sir, Further to your report (Dec 27)
on the reformation of Dennis the
Menace, may I suggest that The
Beano also reconsiders the personality
of Gnasher, so as to properly reflect
the overwhelming sensitivity of dogs,
rather than portraying them as
dangerous. Perhaps they could start
with changing his name.
professor john cooper, qc
Patron, Born Innocent (campaigning
against the Dangerous Dogs Act)
Sir, With Dennis the Menace
becoming a more tolerant personality
can we also expect Desperate Dan
(?two cow pies and I?m still hungry?)
to become more health conscious?
roger foord
Chorleywood, Herts
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
35
1G M
Leading articles
Daily Universal Register
UK: Crystal Palace play Arsenal in the
Premier League at Selhurst Park, London
Australia: The third day of the fourth Ashes
Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground
Nature notes
There is a cheerful
sight in some
gardens. On the
small, introduced
cherry trees that
are nowadays so
widely planted,
pink flowers have opened. They are very
fragile in appearance and look as if their
petals might melt away like snow. There are
also tiny green tips on the leaf buds of these
trees. They are cultivars of the Japanese
rosebud cherry, which is one of the 40 or
more oriental cherries that have been
brought into this country for the sake of
their decorative flowers or autumn leaves.
However, one ought to notice that the
name ?Japanese cherry? is generally given
by horticulturalists to another very popular
tree, which does not flower until April
and has double-petalled pink or white
flowers, and bronze leaves. All these
cherries have been cultivated in Japan,
especially in temple gardens, for centuries.
derwent may
Birthdays today
Denzel Washington,
pictured, actor, film
director and producer,
Fences (2016), 63; Jill
Ainscough, chief
operating officer, Ofcom
(2007-14), 60; No雔
Annesley, honorary
chairman, Christie?s UK, 76; Sir Colin Birss,
High Court judge, 53; Terry Butcher,
footballer, England (1980-90), and
commentator, 59; James Caan, entrepreneur,
Dragons? Den investor (2007-12), 57; Sir John
Carter, deputy chairman, Travelers
Insurance Company, 80; Earl of Clanwilliam,
businessman, 57; Richard Clayderman,
pianist and entertainer, 64; Sir Max Hastings,
military historian, 72; Lord Hattersley,
deputy leader of the Labour Party (1983-92),
85; Nicola Horlick, investment fund
manager, 57; Lady Judge, lawyer,
chairwoman, Institute of Directors, Pension
Protection Fund (2010-16), 71; Professor FP
Kelly, statistician and master of Christ?s
College, Cambridge (2006-16), 67; Nigel
Kennedy, violinist, founder of the Orchestra
of Life, 61; Stan Lee, writer and publisher,
Marvel Comics, 95; John Legend,
singer-songwriter, All of Me (2013), 39; Alex
Lloyd, motor racing driver, winner of the 25
Hours of Thunderhill endurance race (2014),
33; Sir Terry Morgan, chairman, Crossrail,
69; Sienna Miller, actress, Layer Cake (2004),
36; Baroness Newlove, victims commissioner,
56; Adam Peaty, swimmer, Olympic gold
medallist (2016) and 100m breaststroke
world record holder, 23; Pat Rafter, tennis
player, former world No 1, 45; Dame Joan
Ruddock, Labour MP (1987-2015), minister
for the Department of Energy and Climate
Change (2009-10), 74; Dame Maggie Smith,
actress, The Lady in the Van (2015), 83; Ratan
Tata, chairman of Tata Sons (1991-2012), 80;
Gordon Taylor, chief executive, Professional
Footballers? Association, 73.
On this day
In 1895 the Lumi鑢e brothers projected the
first ?moving pictures? on to the wall of the
Grand Caf� on the Boulevard des Capucines
in Paris.
The last word
?I did not fully understand the dread term
?terminal illness? until I saw Heathrow for
myself.? Dennis Potter, television dramatist,
The Sunday Times (1978).
Illness and Independence
The work of the Alzheimer?s Society is at the forefront of efforts to combat
the tragic effects of this debilitating disease and deserves our generous support
Paul Seymour, a 54-year-old sufferer of early
onset dementia, refuses to use Post-it Notes to
remind him of details that have slipped away. He
fears that this would be an acknowledgment of the
progression of his illness. ?He has his dignity,? says
Paul?s wife, Tracey, ?and he wants to keep it?. That
is a noble goal, and one that the Alzheimer?s
Society, which The Times is supporting for its
Christmas appeal, is making more achievable.
Alzheimer?s is a relentless thief of individual
autonomy. Missed hospital appointments and keys
left in strange places give way to more crippling incapacities. Ordinary tasks like going to the shops
for a pint of milk can become insuperable obstacles
to getting through the day or, worse, fraught with
risk. Yet just as a sufferer?s self-sufficiency recedes,
so friends and acquaintances sometimes drift
away, repelled by the stigma of the disease or
unsure how to react to its vicissitudes.
The work of the Alzheimer?s Society is a
welcome antidote. Its ?Side by Side? project seeks
to combat loneliness by matching dementia
sufferers with volunteers who enable them to go
on trips, keep up their hobbies and remain active
and involved in their communities. The isolation
endured by dementia sufferers is well documented.
Having trained volunteers to confide in can enable
those affected by the disease to live fulfilling lives.
Volunteers are always in demand: the Alzheimer?s
Society has a waiting list of more than 1,000
people awaiting helpers across the country.
The charity also invests in vital research to find
the causes of what is still a little-understood
condition. We have recently reported on the work
of Professor Nick Franks, who is examining sleep
patterns in the hope of learning more about the
build-up of proteins in the brain that is thought
to cause the disease. His groundbreaking studies,
and other work conducted at the Dementia
Research Institute, are made possible by the
financial assistance of the Alzheimer?s Society.
Dementia is now the leading cause of death
in this country. Yet the amount of money spent on
research into it and associated diseases has not kept
pace with the rise in prevalence. Other conditions,
most notably cancer and heart disease, have
attracted more money and attention. While a rise
in cancer survival rates in recent decades is to be
celebrated, with longer lives come more sufferers
of the diseases of old age, and the allocation of
research funding needs to reflect this.
While a cure evades researchers, those living
with Alzheimer?s must receive the support they
need. That support can be difficult to deliver, how-
ever, even for those closest to a sufferer. Dementia
can disrupt family ties, as parents find their children?s
faces gradually less familiar and, in the saddest
cases of all, sources of fear or frustration.
Last week we reported on Ming Ho, whose
mother, Glenys, 91, was once Ms Ho?s best friend.
Since falling victim to Alzheimer?s disease and
vascular dementia, however, Glenys has grown
suspicious of the care that her daughter provides.
When Ms Ho had to leave her mother for some
weeks to have surgery, it was thanks only to the
Alzheimer?s Society?s ?Talking Point Forum? that
she was able to get her mother into residential
care. The charity is also running trials to
establish whether offering family carers cognitive
behavioural therapy can reduce their stress,
anxiety and depression.
If current trends persist, there will be more than
a million people with the disease in this country by
2025, and two million by 2051. This is as pressing
a public health problem as Britain has ever faced,
and it will not be solved overnight. If the impact
of dementia is to be alleviated, charities such as
the Alzheimer?s Society need resources to drive
forward scientific research and provide long-term
help to those in need. They are worthy recipients
of Times readers? support this year.
Missing a Beat
Britain?s police forces are beset by incompetence and must now change
A year ago Her Majesty?s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)
handed the Metropolitan Police what sources said
was the ?most damning review? in the watchdog?s
history: it found that some three quarters of child
protection cases had been mishandled. The Met
promised that these figures would change. Change
they did. A year later, the watchdog finds that the
force now bungles more than 90 per cent of such
cases. At root, the report said, is incompetence
such as a failure by officers to record the concerns
of children and being too slow to investigate claims.
In their response to one missing child there was a
delay of three days. Poor attitudes were evident
too: despite well-documented risks to children who
frequently go missing, officers dismissed them
with remarks such as ?it?s what they always do?.
The findings may be shocking but they are not
surprising. British policing is in a poor state.
Recent weeks were particularly dismal for the institution: two rape cases collapsed in London after
police withheld exonerating evidence, and The
Times reported accusations that the police took
bribes from suspects in a vast fraud inquiry. Earlier
this month two retired officers were placed under
investigation for leaking to the press confidential
material found in a police investigation, in a
suspected vendetta against the former cabinet
minister Damian Green.
In spite of large-scale inquiries into police
failings such as those that looked into the Rotherham sex abuse scandal and the Hillsborough
disaster, this is an institution beset by scandal and
apparently unable to learn from its mistakes.
Britain?s institutions are in general good at
responding to public investigations. They have
successfully whipped the NHS and Westminster
into slightly better shape. But the police have
proved stubbornly resistant to change. When
asked to account for mistakes the police often
blame stretched resources and the proliferation of
baffling new crimes online, which they say they
need more training to deal with. Times are tough,
but the excuse cannot be wheeled out to account
for every wrongdoing. The rot lies deeper.
One problem is cultural ? police are insular,
with a tendency to cover up their colleagues? misconduct. The Hillsborough investigation revealed
the institution?s closed, defensive attitude, which
allowed officers to hide their errors. There is little
evidence that this has changed. In 2015 a freedom
of information request revealed that not one
Metropolitan Police officer was sanctioned after
the force faced more than 240 complaints of racial
discrimination in a year. Another is structural.
Attempts to make the force more accountable
have unintentionally made it less so. The creation
of new disciplinary bodies such as the College of
Policing, brought in by Theresa May during her
tenure at the Home Office, has meant that officers
now have a baffling array of bodies to which they
can report wrongdoing. A further problem is
that there are few ways to reward bright officers
other than to promote them off the streets and
into managerial roles.
Large-scale and radical reform now needs to be
on the table. All Britain?s police forces should take
heed of the Met?s latest embarrassment. Last year?s
HMICFRS report was so horrifying it produced
alarm that the Met was sitting on a second Rotherham scandal. This suspicion alone is a shocking
indictment of an institution in need of change.
Pay Attention, Boffins!
Britain?s counter-espionage agencies have personnel issues they need to address
Desmond Llewelyn?s ?Q?, immortalised in numerous James Bond films, had many shortcomings.
Yet while he was pompous, irascible and fussy, we
never witnessed him whingeing to 007 about poor
standards of health and safety in his laboratory.
That was despite briefcases exploding all over
the place, poison darts flying around and rockets
decapitating dummies mere feet away from whitecoated geeks beavering dutifully away at their
desks.
Q certainly never complained about his poor
work-life balance. These twin modern concerns
are, nonetheless, reportedly bedevilling progress
at Her Majesty?s Government Communications
Centre, headquartered in Milton Keynes. This
outfit, charged with supplying spooks with
ever-deadlier fountain-pen aerosols and assorted
hardware, has ? according to a former employee
? become peculiarly PC in its management style.
Far worse, while ensuring appropriate working
conditions is not to be mocked, the anonymous
whistleblower alleges that resources at HMGCC
?are heavily under-utilised?. Which sounds suspiciously like bureaucratic code best deciphered as
?overstaffing swiftly leading to bone idleness?.
Another, even more important, branch of the
national security enterprise is facing the opposite
problem. Rather than housing too many operatives,
GCHQ is attracting too few. Emerging coding
talent is being lost to tech giants, partly because
of the civil service?s inability to match financial
incentives on offer in the private sector, but also
because a vetting process taking up to six months
owing to staff shortages deters potential recruits.
Perhaps some judicious cross-country redeployment, from Milton Keynes to Cheltenham, might
be in order? As Q might say to Bond, and probably
has over their long and fractious partnership, this
is no laughing matter.
36
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
World
Japan plans new carrier
to meet Beijing threat
Japan
Eichel Stone Kyoto
Didi Tang Beijing
Japan is proposing to develop its
first aircraft carriers since the
Second World War to counter Chinese
expansionism in the region and the
threat posed by North Korea.
Under a �billion plan the Japanese
navy would convert two 248m Izumoclass helicopter carriers to handle
American F-35 jump-jet fighters, giving
the country its first naval airstrike
capability in more than 70 years.
Converting the ships is highly contentious because it will not only
threaten the military balance in Asia
but potentially breach Japan?s postwar
pacifist constitution. Japan once had
the largest carrier fleet in the world
? and used the ships to attack Pearl
Harbor in 1941 ? but the last was
destroyed in 1945.
The development could provoke a
regional arms race, with tensions
already heightened by North Korea?s
advances in missile and nuclear weapons technology and Chinese claims to
disputed islets and atolls in the East and
South China Seas. Taiwan claimed yesterday that China was practising for an
invasion of the self-governing island.
China has only one operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, a refurbished,
Soviet-era vessel, but its first homebuilt carrier, the Type 001A, was
launched this year (to enter service in
2020), and it is building at least two
more.
The refit to the two Japanese carriers
? Izumo and Kaga ? would involve
alterations to the flight decks to withstand the extreme heat of the F-35B?s
engines during vertical take-offs and
landings. Hangars would have to be
remodelled and room made for F-35B
Armed and dangerous
Izumo-class Helicopter destroyer
Length 248m
Aircraft 28
Cost �0m
Speed 30kt
Type 001A
Length 315m
Aircraft 48
Cost �4bn
Speed 31kt
Gerald R Ford class
Length 333m
Aircraft 75+
Cost �7bn
Speed 30kt
Queen Elizabeth class
Length 280m
Aircraft 70+
Cost �1bn
Speed 25kt
fuel and spare parts. Estimates in the
Japanese media put the cost at about
�billion, although the cost of refitting
Izumo alone was put at �5 million.
Japan has already signed a deal with
the American manufacturer Lockheed
Martin for up to 42 conventional F-35A
aircraft, which require a runway for
take-off and landing, but the order
could be amended to include F-35Bs for
the carriers.
The refitted carriers would probably
be deployed to the southern Okinawa
area in the East China Sea, where
tensions between Japan and China over
the disputed Senkaku, or Diaoyu,
islands remains high. Japan is also concerned by China?s improving air power,
with several of its warplanes crossing
into Japanese airspace in recent years.
Itsunori Onodera, Japan?s defence
minister, acknowledged that the
government was looking at various
possibilities but said there had been no
detailed discussions about buying the
F-35B or refurbishing the Izumo-class
ships ?at present?.
Japan has significant defence ties
with the US. The island of Okinawa
hosts US Marines and the US air force,
and one of America?s nuclear-powered
aircraft carriers is permanently based
near Japan.
Shinzo Abe, the prime minister,
favours revising the pacifist Article 9 of
Japan?s postwar constitution, and easily
won re-election in October. Parties in
favour of amending the US-drafted
charter won nearly 80 per cent of the
seats in parliament although Mr Abe
has said that he would hold a referendum before trying to change it by 2020.
Amending Article 9 would be viewed
as greatly symbolic by those countries
and territories that suffered under Japanese occupation during the Second
World War. It is also a controversial
issue at home: supporters regard the
charter as the foundation of Japan?s
postwar democracy and boom;
conservatives view it as a humiliating
restriction.
Because of such sensitivities, Japan
has traditionally referred to the two
Izumo-class vessels as ?helicopter destroyers?, rather than aircraft carriers.
Hua Chunying, a spokesman for the
Chinese foreign ministry, said that
equipping them with F-35Bs might
violate Article 9. ?We urge Japan to do
more that may help to enhance mutual
trust and promote regional peace
and stability,? she said. China has
become increasingly assertive over its
territorial claims.
Yesterday Taiwan claimed that air
exercises carried out by the Chinese
involved a practice run for an invasion
of the island, which the Communist
Party considers a rogue province. ?In
the face of menace, we are determined
to fear no threat, to resist any invasion
and to fight until the end. We have the
determination not to fear any sacrifice,?
the Taiwanese army said. Taiwan has a
defence agreement with the US.
Beijing responded by saying that
Taiwan should get used to the flights.
This month China flew fighters,
bombers and reconnaissance aircraft
around the island in a show of force.
A two-minute video of the exercise
showed Taiwan?s highest peak, Yushan,
in the background. ?These were routine
drills that had been planned,? An Fengshan, a spokesman for China?s Taiwan
Affairs Office, said. ?Everyone will get
used to it.?
China was angered this year when
the US passed the National Defence
Authorisation Act, which allows for,
among other things, high-level meetings between American and Taiwanese
military officials as well as visits to ports
by US warships. The Chinese drills have
been interpreted as an attempt to deter
military contacts between Washington
and Taipei.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary,
and Gavin Williamson, the defence
secretary, met their Japanese counterparts this month, reaching an agreement that two Royal Navy frigates
would visit Japan and that British
troops would train on Japanese soil for
the first time. Further co-operation
between the Royal Air Force and Japan
Self-Defence Air Force was also
approved, following the deployment of
RAF Typhoons to Japan last year.
Nature?s canvas The skies in Lapland
Chinese caught busting oil sanctions on Kim Italy sends
China
Didi Tang
Chinese ships have been flouting sanctions by illegally selling oil to North
Korean vessels at sea despite international restrictions on such trade with
Pyongyang.
Images captured by US reconnaissance satellites showed people on Chinese vessels trading oil with others on
boats bearing North Korean markings,
according to an analysis of the pictures
by a South Korean newspaper. The US
says that it has recorded dozens of similar ?at-sea? sales since October.
Official Chinese figures show that
Beijing did not sell any oil to North
Korea in November after earlier
economic sanctions were passed with
China?s backing. They do show that
China?s exports in liquefied petroleum
gas and fuel ethanol to North Korea
spiked last month but that it did not
export any gasoline, jet fuel, diesel or
Satellite images showed Chinese vessels trading oil with North Korean ships
fuel oil in compliance with UN resolutions. It is unclear whether Beijing is
aware of the illegal trade or how effectively it has cracked down on it. China,
tired of Pyongyang?s provocations, has
pledged to enforce UN sanctions. Beijing does insist, however, on supplying
North Korea with food and fuel for
humanitarian purposes. Citing government sources, the South Korean
newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported that
Chinese and North Korean ships were
spotted trading oil illegally about
30 times since October, after the UN
Security Council drastically cut the
amount of refined petroleum products
that North Korea was allowed to buy.
Tougher limits were imposed on
December 22 in response to Pyongyang?s intercontinental ballistic missile
test on November 29. The missile is
believed to have the capability to strike
anywhere in the US. The satellite
images identified a ship named Ryesonggang 1. No Chinese ships were formally identified.
Washington also announced sanctions this week against two North
Korean officials ? Kim Jong-sik and Ri
Yong-chol.
They are believed to be associated
with Pyongyang?s missile programme.
Mr Kim is a prominent rocket scientist,
and Mr Ri, an aide, is said to represent
the ruling Workers? Party on the missile
programme.
Living conditions in North Korea are
reported to have deteriorated since the
economic sanctions were imposed, and
there has been a spike in the number of
citizens attempting to defect.
Italy
Tom Kington Rome
Italy is to send hundreds of soldiers to a
desert fort in Niger to confront peopletraffickers who send Africans across
the Sahara and the Mediterranean.
Special forces will be among the 470
troops to be dispatched 60 miles south
of the Libyan border to Fort Madama, a
military outpost built by the French in
the 1930s which sits astride key smuggling routes.
Paolo Gentiloni, the prime minister,
said the plan, yet to be approved by the
Italian cabinet, will help to ?defeat the
trafficking of humans as well as terrorism?. The scheme reflects Rome?s view
that Libya?s desert frontier is now
Europe?s southern flank, a gateway for
migrants heading across the Mediterranean, that must be sealed.
Andrea Margelletti, an adviser to the
Italian defence ministry, said: ?When
thousands of migrants arrive in Italy, it?s
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
37
2G M
Row after Trump is hailed
as Churchill?s equal
Page 39
Sailor said he was
seven months adrift
in the Indian Ocean
Page 41
JUAN CARLOS CASADO/SWNS
Saudi tycoon
prince told
to pay $7bn
for freedom
Saudi Arabia
Hannah Lucinda Smith Istanbul
A Saudi prince known as the ?Arabian
Warren Buffet? has been told that he
must pay up to $7 billion to be released
from detention in the luxurious RitzCarlton Hotel in Riyadh.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, 62, was one
of 320 businessmen and royals rounded
up in November in a corruption investigation spearheaded by Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman, his first cousin.
Prince Alwaleed is the main shareholder
of Kingdom Holding, a publicly traded
company that has interests in Citigroup
and Twitter, and which previously held a
stake in News Corp, parent company of
The Times. He owns a considerable
amount of property in Saudi Arabia and
has regularly appeared on lists of the
world?s most influential Arabs. His
fortune is estimated at $16.9 billion.
?I believe in working hard and being
successful. But it?s also about helping
your immediate community, the
society, the nation, and the whole world
in general,? he says on his website.
He offered to transfer his 95 per cent
stake in Kingdom Holding to the Saudi
government in return for his release,
according to The Financial Times, but
the government is demanding that the
Prince Alwaleed
bin Talal is being
held in the Riyadh
Ritz-Carlton
have been lit with spectacular displays of the aurora borealis on clear nights in recent weeks. Tourists are more likely to see them the farther north they venture
500 troops to tackle traffickers and jihadists
our problem.? Italy has already trained
Libyan coastguards to intercept
migrants setting off in perilous inflatables. The Saharan mission is also seen
as a way to stop Libya becoming a
bottleneck for stranded migrants.
A team of 120 soldiers, mainly engineers, will go out in the new year with
more than 100 vehicles that will land in
Gabon on the west coast of Africa and
be driven 1,500 miles to the fort.
The mission also follows a French
request for help after 4,000 of its soldiers were sent to fight jihadi insurgents
in the Sahel region, between the Sahara
and the savannah in South Sudan. Fort
Madama has been used by soldiers of
the French Foreign Legion.
Mr Gentiloni joined European
leaders and the governments of Mali,
Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania at a conference outside Paris this
month to discuss joint efforts to crack
down on terrorists in the region.
The Niger mission comes after a se-
ries of rows between Italy and France,
starting with Italy?s anger over French
pressure to oust Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. Italy declined to offer assistance
when France sent troops to Mali in 2013
to counter jihadists. The new easing of
Sirte
100 miles
Sabha
LIBYA
ALGERIA
al-Jawf
NIGER
Agadez
Fort Madama
CHAD
the tension follows closer military ties
prompted by meetings about Britain?s
exit from the EU.
Jean-Pierre Darnis, of the IAI think
tank in Rome, said: ?Italy is keenly
aware of growing European military
integration, exemplified by these kind
of military missions, and doesn?t want
to miss out.? Nonetheless, Italy has
been suspicious of France?s support for
General Khalifa Haftar in Libya, where
the two nations? energy companies vie
for influence.
Gianandrea Gaiani, director of Analisi Difesa, the online defence journal,
said: ?The irony is that Italy is now partnering in Niger with France, which is its
biggest rival just across the border in
Libya.?
Italy?s military chief of staff, General
Claudio Graziano, has said that the
Italian mission will not be a combat
force. It will focus on training Niger soldiers to tackle traffickers and jihadists.
Mr Gaiani believes that if the Italian
prime minister wanted to stop the
traffickers? well-armed militias, it
would be hard to do so without fighting.
A defence ministry source in Rome said
the mission would be simply men and
vehicles.
Four US soldiers were killed in Niger
in October by about 50 Isis-affiliated
militants who ambushed their convoy
with rocket-propelled grenades and
heavy machineguns.
The mission will ramp up as Rome diverts about half the 1,500 troops it has
stationed in Iraq. First, however, the deployment must be approved in parliament, where opposition to the plan is
growing.
The left-wing Free and Equal alliance, a group of dissidents from Italy?s
ruling Democratic Party, criticised the
lack of consultation with MPs.
Marco Minniti, the interior minister
who has overseen relations with Libya,
said he hoped to win the trust of local
tribes, using the same skills of
diplomacy that convinced leaders in
southern Libyan to fight traffickers.
Mr Minniti said that at first the tribal
leaders did not trust him. ?Only when I
reassured them that I was from Calabria, a region where alliances are sealed
with blood, did they agree to sign.?
payment be made either in cash or a
deal including cash and equities. It is
hoping to raise $100 billion from the
November arrests, which would fill a
hole in the coffers left by the fall in
global oil prices and the mounting costs
of the war in Yemen.
The opulent hotel where the detainees are being held boasts 600-year-old
olive trees in its gardens and has 492
rooms, starting at $500 a night. All are
currently unavailable for reservations; a
notice on the hotel?s website adds that
lines to in-room phones are suspended.
The hotel?s bill to the Saudi authorities is estimated at $450,000 a day.
Mohammed bin Salman?s anti-corruption drive has been welcomed in Saudi
Arabia, where the population has
grown disgruntled at the flamboyant
displays of wealth by many members of
the staggeringly rich elite. He is also
seeking to diversify the economy away
from oil and ease some of the kingdom?s
harsher social constraints. However,
some western investors fear that his
real motive is a power grab.
Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, another
of those arrested, bought his freedom
by agreeing to pay a $1 billion fine and
signing a statement confessing to corruption. It is unclear why Prince Alwaleed is unwilling to accept a similar
deal; however, a source close to him told
The Wall Street Journal that he was
willing to take the case to court in order
to ?make a headache? for his cousin.
?He wants a proper investigation. It is
expected that Alwaleed will give Bin
Salman a hard time,? the source said.
38
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
2G M
World
Rebels and Assad in deal to treat sick
ABDULMONAM EASSA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Syria
Hannah Lucinda Smith Istanbul
Evacuations have begun from the
besieged Syrian district of Eastern
Ghouta under a delicate deal brokered between rebels and the Assad
regime and overseen by Russia and
Turkey.
Critically ill people are being
swapped one-for-one with prisoners
held by the main rebel group controlling the area. Last week 494 people
were listed by the UN as needing
urgent medical care but only 29 have
been approved by the Syrian government. One of them, Katr Alnada,
aged six months, died before the
evacuation began.
?The number is going down, not
because we are evacuating people but
because they are dying,? Jan Egeland,
the United Nations humanitarian
adviser for Syria, said. ?We have tried
for many months to get medical evacuations out and food and other supplies in.?
Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of
Damascus, was one of the first
districts to rise up against President
Assad in 2011. It has been controlled
by the rebels since late 2012. In
August 2013 it was hit by the worst
Israel to name
Western Wall
station after
US president
Israel
Anshel Pfeffer Jerusalem
The Syrian regime is allowing emergency medical cases out of besieged Eastern Ghouta in return for the release of prisoners
chemical attack of the conflict when
regime forces fired rockets filled with
sarin gas. More than 1,000 people
died. The area, population 400,000,
has been besieged for four years, and
soldiers on both sides extort huge
taxes from civilians who try to use the
only road in or out. Aid reaches the
area only sporadically and several
babies have starved to death there in
recent months.
The 29 people approved for evacuation are being given passage out of
the rebel-controlled suburb by
regime forces in exchange for 29 prisoners held by the Army of Islam since
2013. The captives were taken from
Adra, a neighbourhood with large
populations of Druze and Alawite
minorities largely loyal to the regime.
The Army of Islam drew international condemnation in 2015 by
parading civilian hostages from Adra
in cages through Eastern Ghouta to
try to deter regime airstrikes. It is not
known whether these hostages are
among those being released.
Four people have been taken out of
Eastern Ghouta to hospitals in Damascus. An activist inside the area said
Rebel control
Damascus
Hannah Lucinda Smith
Fifteen Islamists have
been hanged in Egypt for
a terrorist attack in the
Sinai peninsula, the
largest mass execution in
the country since the 2011
revolution.
The men were hanged
in two prisons in the
north of the country. The
executions were ordered
by President Sisi, who
came to power in a coup
in 2013 and has told the
security forces to use
?brute force? to quell an
Islamic State insurgency
in Sinai.
The men were found
guilty of an attack on a
military checkpoint in
2013 in which one officer
and eight soldiers died.
Eastern
Ghouta
SYRIA
5 miles
that people hoping to be allowed out
had gathered at Red Crescent points
in Douma and Arbayn.
A de-escalation plan drawn up by
Russia, Turkey and Iran in September has had little effect. The regime is
pounding Eastern Ghouta with airstrikes, and the rebels are blasting
mortar bombs towards Damascus.
On Christmas Day a coalition of 50
rebel groups said that they were
rejecting an initiative for peace talks
in Sochi, Russia, on January 29 proposed by Moscow and backed by
Turkey, a main supporter of the
opposition. The Syrian government
said it would attend; however, the
opposition has accused it of trying to
circumvent the UN-backed negotiations in Geneva, also in late January.
15 Islamists hanged
in mass execution
Egypt
Adra
Douma
The number of attacks
has soared since then.
More than 300 people
died in an assault on a
Sufi mosque last month.
Isis has capitalised on
resentment over the
crackdown on the Muslim
Brotherhood, which ruled
between the revolution
and the coup. Mohamed
Morsi, the former
president and leader of
the Brotherhood, is
serving life in prison.
One prisoner was
hanged from 2011-13. Last
year 44 were executed;
this year?s total is now 16.
Human Rights Watch has
raised concerns about the
openness of the justice
system since a decree was
introduced in 2014
extending the jurisdiction
of the military courts.
The Israeli government wants to
name a train station proposed for
near the Western Wall after President Trump in tribute to his decision
to recognise Jerusalem as Israel?s
capital.
The Donald John Trump station
would be part of an extension of the
new Tel Aviv-Jerusalem line, part of
which would involve tunnelling
under the Old City, passing near sites
holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims,
and ending at the wall.
The line, which is expected to begin
operating next year and which will
cut travel time between Israel?s two
main cities down to 28 minutes, currently terminates at a new station,
90m underground at the western
edge of Jerusalem. The Western Wall
extension plan has yet to be finalised
or approved.
Israel has been making diplomatic
efforts to get other countries to join
the US in recognising Jerusalem as its
capital, but so far only Guatemala has
followed Mr Trump?s lead.
Yisrael Katz, the Israeli transport
minister, said this week: ?The Western Wall is the most holy place for the
Jewish people and I have decided to
name the train station leading there
for President Trump following his
brave and historic decision.?
Almost 130 countries condemned
the US move at the United Nations
last week. In response, Washington
has threatened to cut its funding of
the UN and its foreign aid to countries that opposed it.
Israeli planners would like to extend the line into the centre of Jerusalem and from there to the Western
Wall, although full engineering and
financial feasibility studies have yet
to be completed. It is not clear where
the wall station would be built, and
the government has yet to allocate
the estimated 2.5 billion shekels
(�0 million) the project would cost.
A Jerusalem official said the project
was ?a dream which will take decades
to build, if it is ever completed?.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
39
2G M
World
Row after Trump hailed as Churchill?s equal
United States
Ben Hoyle Los Angeles
Like President Trump, Winston
Churchill was born into privilege,
came to power at an advanced age,
relished a well-crafted insult and
took pride in how disliked he was by
a broad spectrum of the establishment politicians around him.
That does not mean, however,
that it is a good idea to compare
the two. A conservative American politician and media personality tried to equate the
statesmen this week. He learnt
to his cost that historians, politicians and Churchill enthusiasts
around the world were more
than ready to fight his argument
on the internet, on the airwaves and in
the newspapers . . . and to never surrender.
Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, radio host, author
and Baptist minister, maintained his
silence yesterday in the face of a backlash. Perhaps he was thinking that this
was not his finest hour.
The prominent Trump supporter
has twice run unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination, in
2008 and last year. He is
also the father of Sarah
Huckabee Sanders, the
White House press secreMike Huckabee had
just seen Darkest Hour
tary. After watching Darkest Hour, the
new film starring Gary Oldman as
Churchill navigating domestic political
rivalries during the Second World War,
Mr Huckabee tweeted on Boxing Day
that it served as a reminder of ?what
real leadership looks like?.
He went on: ?Churchill was hated by
his own party, opposition party and
press. Feared by King as reckless, and
despised for his bluntness. But unlike
Neville Chamberlain, he didn?t retreat.
We had a Chamberlain for 8 yrs; in
@realDonaldTrump we have a
Churchill.?
The comment was retweeted more
than 10,000 times and by yesterday
evening it had been liked more than
27,000 times.
Support for the comparison, how-
ever, was swamped by ridicule. Critics
cited other biographical details from
Churchill?s life that diverged conspicuously from Mr Trump?s record, including his exploits as a decorated war hero.
Mr Trump evaded the Vietnam draft
because of temporary bone spurs on his
heel.
Churchill was awarded a Nobel prize
for literature, while Mr Trump had a
ghostwriter for his memoir The Art of
the Deal.
The British prime minister?s claim to
greatness as the man who led his nation
to victory over Hitler is in contrast to
Mr Trump?s record of stoking division
at home and questioning America?s
commitment to Nato.
Kristian Tonning Riise, a Norwegian
MP, used sarcasm to make his point. He
wrote on Twitter that Churchill was
one of history?s most gifted orators ?and
won the Nobel literature prize for his
writing . . . totally same thing?.
Timothy Riley, the director of the
National Churchill Museum in Missouri, agreed that like Mr Trump,
Churchill ?was not afraid to ruffle a few
feathers?. But he told The New York
Times that this was done in pursuit of
?his supreme task . . . to defeat tyranny?.
His career in public service spanned
more than half a century. Mr Trump?s
time in office has lasted less than a year.
Churchill was known for ?his perseverance, his resilience and his long-term
view of history,? he said. ?All of those
qualities, I think, are best judged after
some time.?
Iain Martin, page 33
BOB SCHUTZ/AP; JIM LO SCALZO/EPA
Axe falls
on historic
White House
magnolia
A
magnolia that
has stood at
the south
fa鏰de of the
White House
since 1835 was partially
cut down yesterday after
arborists warned that it
was in danger of
collapse (Jacqui
Goddard writes).
The tree was the
oldest in the White
House grounds and had
been planted by Andrew
Jackson, the seventh
president, in memory of
his wife, Rachel, who
died days after his
election in 1828. It was a
cutting from her
favourite tree at their
farm in Tennessee.
The decision to
remove part of it was
taken by Melania Trump
after consultation with
experts at the US
National Arboretum,
who carried out an
assessment and
concluded that the
?overall architecture
and structure of the tree
is greatly compromised?.
Despite decades of
work to shore it up with
cables, the tree?s hollow
The tree planted by
Andrew Jackson has
lasted through 38
presidents including
John F Kennedy,
pictured with his
wife, Jackie, in 1962.
Yesterday work
began to remove a
substantial part of it
trunk was crumbling
and its upper limbs were
unsound, leaving it too
weak to hold new
supports. ?If this was
any ordinary tree, it
would have been
removed long ago. We
understand this is a
historic tree and all
measures have been
used to save it . . .
eventually, the tree will
fail,? the arboretum?s
report concluded.
The tree overlooked
the South Lawn from
which the presidential
helicopter, Marine One,
lifts off. ?Mrs Trump
personally reviewed the
reports from the United
States National
Arboretum and spoke at
length with her staff
about exploring every
option before making
the decision to remove a
portion of the magnolia
tree,? Stephanie
Grisham, the first lady?s
communications
director, told CNN.
?After reviewing the
reports, she trusted that
every effort had been
made to preserve the
historic tree and was
concerned about the
safety of visitors and
members of the press
who are often standing
right in front of the tree
during Marine One lifts,?
she added.
In anticipation of the
tree?s eventual demise,
arborists used seeds
from it to grow a
replacement. The
magnolia sapling now
stands eight feet tall.
2,000 Homeland agents sent abroad Christmas Day storm breaks
Ben Hoyle
The Department of Homeland Security, which was created to protect the
United States from terrorism and other
threats 16 years ago, is stealthily extending its reach around the world, upsetting allies in the process.
The agency was the largest of several
hundred US government organisations
founded in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and
its creation represented the biggest reorganisation of the federal government
in more than half a century.
The first secretary for homeland
security, Tom Ridge, commanded a
staff of 170,000. The department?s head
count has now grown to 240,000, it has
an annual budget of more than $40 billion and its remit stretches far beyond
counterterrorism to include cybersecurity, disaster relief, immigration enforcement and combating drug smuggling and human trafficking.
About 2,000 of those employees are
stationed abroad in more than 70 countries, according to The New York Times.
Homeland Security spy planes are patrolling more than 42 million miles of
the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and
the Pacific, contributing to 145 drug seizures last year.
Agents posted in Africa have been involved in tackling drug dealers,
poachers, scammers and Islamist extremists. They have also been accused
of using ?mafia-style? tactics to extra-
dite suspected drug smugglers to the
US from Tanzania.
In Germany and Canada there have
been complaints that the US is exporting its tightening immigration controls
to their countries through the presence
of Homeland Security agents at their
airports. In the US itself, union leaders
and politicians in Congress have questioned the efficiency of sending so
many agents abroad when immigration
and border protection services are facing severe recruitment shortfalls at
home.
?Many threats to the homeland
begin overseas, and that?s where we
need to be,? James Nealon, its assistant
secretary for international engagement, said.
records for heaviest snowfall
Jacqui Goddard Miami
Snow blanketed much of northeastern
America yesterday, setting records in
one Pennsylvania city where 53 inches
fell in 30 hours.
An emergency was declared in Erie,
the state?s fourth largest city, which had
more than 5ft of snow from Christmas
Eve to yesterday. Records were set for
the heaviest snowfall in a single day ?
34in on Christmas Day ? and for the
deepest two-day snowfall recorded in
the state. ?Roads are dangerous and
impassable,? Erie?s police department
said, urging the 99,000 residents to stay
at home as a fleet of snow ploughs tried
to clear roads. ?This is an incredible
amount of snow we?re trying to move.?
Four-wheel drive National Guard
Humvees were used as ambulances and
police vehicles to get through the drifts
with more snow expected last night.
Meteorologists attributed the conditions to the ?lake effect?, in which frigid
air gathers up moisture as it passes over
the Great Lakes, creating powerful
bands of snow. The narrow bands have
stalled over the city, at times deluging it
with up to one inch every 15 minutes.
Erie has received 92in this month,
making it the worst in the city?s history.
40
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
World
ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Bomb explodes in busy
Russian supermarket
Moscow A blast ripped through a
supermarket in St Petersburg last
night, injuring several shoppers.
Officials said the blast at
Perekrestok supermarket in the
city?s northeastern Kalininsky
district had been caused by a
home-made device ?with the
power equivalent to 200g of
TNT?. The device was rigged with
shrapnel to cause maximum
damage. The bomb had been left
in a storage area for customers?
bags. Ten people were treated in
hospital, and their condition was
described as satisfactory. No one
has claimed responsibility for the
explosion but investigators are
treating the incident as attempted
murder. (Reuters)
Elephant kills rancher
Nairobi The director of one of
Kenya?s best-known ranches has
been trampled to death by an
elephant, according to wildlife
authorities. Gilfred Powys is said
to have been trying to scare away
elephants that were destroying a
dam wall at the 43,000-acre
Suyian ranch in central Laikipia.
Large areas of the region are
taken up by private ranches used
for conservation and cattle
farming. (AFP)
Ten jailed for terrorism
Heavenly talents The Golden Circus performed for the Pope yesterday at his weekly general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican for the second Christmas in a row
Former Chelsea striker scores
victory in presidential election
Liberia
Aislinn Laing Johannesburg
The footballer George Weah was
claiming victory in Liberia?s presidential run-off last night.
Mr Weah, 51, was well ahead of
Joseph Boakai, 73, the vice-president,
and his campaign team said it expected
the senator to take about 70 per cent of
the vote, based on the ballots counted.
Mr Weah was Fifa world player of the
year in 1995 and has played for top
clubs including Chelsea, Manchester City and AC Milan. He said
that he was ?very confident? that
he would be declared president.
Unofficial partial results
announced on local radio stations showed Mr Weah in the
lead. ?The Liberian people
clearly made their choice,?
he said on Twitter. ?We are on the verge
of making history for our people.?
The first round of voting in October
gave his Coalition for Democratic
Change a narrow but insufficient lead
over the ruling Unity Party. A court
challenge by the candidate in third
place, citing fraud, delayed the run-off
by seven weeks.
Mr Weah ran for the presidency in 2005 but lost to
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is
stepping down after two
terms. Liberia?s last
democratic transfer of
power was in 1944
when William Tubman was elected
George Weah is well
ahead of his rival in
the run-off
president. He served until his death in
1971. A military coup in 1980 plunged
the country into years of civil war and
authoritarian rule in which 250,000
people, about 8 per cent of the population, died.
Mr Weah and Mr Boakai have said
that they will accept the result provided
there is no credible evidence of fraud.
Observers said it had been a free and
fair election. Many voters said they
were eager for the country to move
forward. ?No matter the results, we will
accept it without causing problems. We
don?t need trouble here any more,?
Samuel Nuahn, 46, who voted for Mr
Boakai, said.
Despite both candidates having
come from humble backgrounds, the
vice-president of 12 years is regarded as
the establishment candidate. Mr Weah
presnted himself as a change from Mrs
Johnson Sirleaf, who has been accused
of failing to dent endemic poverty and
corruption. His footballing background
and his promises to create jobs and
bolster education have made him popular with young urbanites in particular.
Commentators have, however,
raised questions about his political alliances with polarising figures from the
civil wars, including the former rebel
leader Prince Johnson. Jewel HowardTaylor, Mr Weah?s running-mate, is the
ex-wife of Charles Taylor, the former
dictator, who has pledged his support
for Mr Weah?s party from prison in
Britain, where he is serving a 50-year
sentence for war crimes. John Mahama,
a former Ghanaian president who is
leading west African observers, appealed for candidates not to ?jump the
gun? and call the election before the
official result, which is expected today.
Sydney parks lorries to build anti-terror ring of steel
Australia
Bernard Lagan Sydney
Large lorries and heavy mobile cranes
commandeered by police have formed
a ring of steel around Sydney?s shopping precinct to help prevent terrorists
driving vehicles into pedestrians.
Shoppers searching for post-Christmas bargains were also greeted with
new bollards and scores of water-filled
heavy plastic fences.
Last week an Australian citizen of
Afghan descent was arrested after a 4x4
vehicle was driven at high speed into a
busy pedestrian area in central Melbourne, injuring 19 people. Ten of the
victims are still in hospital, two with
critical injuries. Mark Walton, assistant
commissioner of New South Wales
police, said that the measures in Sydney
were an escalation of the force?s crowd
protection strategies. Although the
national terrorist threat level has remained at ?probable? for more than two
years he said increased vigilance was
needed.
?You?ve only got to look at what?s
happened internationally and even
down in Melbourne to know people are
vulnerable and we need to do what we
can, within reason, to make them safe in
these areas,? Mr Walton said.
The barriers and road closures are
expected to be lifted after New Year?s
Eve, when tens of thousands of people
Crowd protection for Boxing Day sales
gather in the city and harbour area to
watch a fireworks display.
Saeed Noori, 32, a former electrician,
has been accused of deliberately running over the pedestrians in Melbourne
last Thursday. He made a brief court
appearance yesterday morning and
was urged by a magistrate to continue
taking his psychiatric medication.
He has been charged with 18 counts
of attempted murder and one of conduct endangering life after allegedly
driving at pedestrians crossing outside
Flinders Street railway station. The
court was told that he may lodge a defence of mental impairment, and that
he was suffering from mental health
issues and possible drug withdrawal.
Mr Noori arrived in Australia as a
refugee from Afghanistan and became
an Australian citizen in 2006. He did
not apply for bail and was remanded in
custody.
Dubai Ten Shia Muslims have
been jailed for life in Bahrain for
belonging to terrorist groups.
Murtadha al-Sendi was sentenced
to death on Monday for forming
the two groups: one to
manufacture bombs and the other
to receive arms and explosives
smuggled from Iran. Security
forces broke up the two cells and
recovered a large quantity of
explosives. Four suspects are still
at large. (AFP)
Wrong rocket bearings
Moscow Russia has admitted that
the failed launch of a satellite last
month was caused by an
embarrassing programming error.
The rocket, launched from
Russia?s new Vostochny
cosmodrome in the far east, had
been programmed with the wrong
co-ordinates, Dmitry Rogozin, the
deputy prime minister, said. It had
been given bearings for take-off
from a different cosmodrome ?
Baikonur in Kazakhstan. (Reuters)
Soldier slapping arrest
Ramallah A third Palestinian
woman has been arrested over a
viral video showing two Israeli
soldiers being slapped by a pair of
girls in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces detained Nour Naji
Tamimi, 21, in the village of Nabi
Saleh, north of Ramallah. Her
cousin Ahed Tamimi, 17, a
campaigner, and her mother are
already in custody. In the mobile
phone footage the soldiers do not
react to their attackers. (AFP)
Factory killer escapes
Moscow The director of a
Moscow sweets factory who killed
a security guard and said he had
barricaded himself inside escaped
yesterday. Ilya Averyanov, a
father of eight, opened fire with a
rifle after an argument with men
who had come to claim a debt
and he slipped away before police
surrounded the building. He told
a radio station that rivals stole his
stake in the business and he was
considering suicide.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
41
2G M
World
ALBERT TAN/SOLENT NEWS
Sailor claims to have
spent seven months
adrift with his cat
in Indian Ocean
France
Adam Sage Paris
A Polish sailor and his cat have been
rescued in the Indian Ocean where he
claims they had been drifting in a
rudderless lifeboat for seven months.
Zbigniew Reket, 54, told members of
the French National Society for Sea
Rescues who brought him ashore on
the island of R閡nion, that his daily diet
had consisted of half a packet of dried
soup, along with any fish he could
catch, which he shared with Samira, his
cat. His craft is a former lifeboat, which
he says he bought in India in 2014 and
Zbigniew Reket was rescued from his
renovated lifeboat in the Indian Ocean
Comoros
Madagascar
South
Africa
INDIAN
OCEAN
Durban
R閡nion
500 miles
attempted to renovate. At 7.20am on
Christmas Day Vivian Mailly, head of
the Sainte-Marie rescue station in
R閡nion, got a call to say there was a
yacht in difficulty five miles from the
French territory. ?They told me it was a
classic intervention: a yacht asking for
help because its motor had broken
down and the helm wasn?t working.?
A crew found Mr Reket at 9am and
?saw that it wasn?t a yacht but a lifeboat.
In fact, it was more of a floating shelter.?
Mr Reket was ?fine, but needed food.
He was very happy to see us,? Mr Mailly
said.
Alain Djeutang, the Seafarers? Chaplain in R閡nion, said : ?I have never seen
anything like it in all my life. His mast
was completely broken and his rudder
couldn?t control anything.?
Mr Reket said that he had last been
on dry land in the Comoros islands ?
where he adopted Samira ? and had
been trying to reach South Africa. ?One
packet [of soup] had to last two days,
and from time to time I fished something,? he said. ?I had provisions for one
month because it?s not so far [to South
Africa].?
La 1鑢e, a French overseas television
channel, said that Mr Reket was thin,
sickly and confused. He told the station:
?I am feeling a lot better because yesterday I ate bread for the first time. I?m
happy to have my feet on dry land.?
He said that after renovating his craft
in India he had intended to return to
the US, where he had lived for ten years,
but had been refused entry because his
visa had expired. Mr Reket said he
spent two years sailing from island to
island in the Indian Ocean before
deciding to head for Durban in South
Africa to seek work after being expelled
from Comoros seven months ago.
However, he ran into trouble, with
his rudder and mast breaking and the
vessel drifting aimlessly between Mauritius, the Maldives and other islands
before being swept back to R閡nion.
Mr Djeutang said: ?Our aim is to help
him with his administrative papers
because he needs to go to the prefecture
to have the right to stay here. We?re
going to have to give him food but the
most important thing is for him to have
money for his boat. He?s ingenious so he
will be able to repair the boat himself.?
His story has drawn comparisons
with Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava,
Americans rescued 900 miles southeast of Japan who claimed to have spent
five months adrift when their engine
failed. Their account has been questioned by the US coast guard and the
media. Mr Mailly said Mr Reket?s story
was plausible.
Angry locals
lock horns
with hunters
Adam Sage
Fields of gold A worker leads his oxen through a patchwork of flooded fields in
Yuanyang county, southeast China, which is the world?s largest producer of rice
A wounded stag escaped with its life
when French villagers confronted
hunters who had pursued the animal
into their community.
The stag took refuge from a pack of
dogs in a garden in Bonneuil-en-Valois,
near Villers-Cotter阾s in northeast
France on Boxing Day.
The hunters from the Villers-Cotter阾s team, who use English foxhounds
and Fran鏰is tricolores, a French breed,
were barred by the homeowner.
About 30 neighbours joined him in a
tense stand-off described by the mayor
as a class struggle between well-heeled
hunters and working villagers.
?It got very heated,? a villager said.
?The hunters were being insulted and
the homeowner refused to let them into
the garden.?
She claimed that the stag was injured,
terrified and surrounded by the baying
pack. ?It couldn?t move any more,? she
said. ?It was looking at us like a poor old
thing, its tongue covered in blood and
hanging out.?
After two hours, the hunters called
off the dogs and the animal escaped. ?In
the end it went off calmly,? she said.
Gilles Laveur, the village mayor, said
a bylaw prohibited hunting in the
village. This was not the first time, however, that hunters had infringed the
rule.
?We?ve had virulent incidents
because of hunting with hounds,? he
added. ?Every confrontation happens
in an atmosphere of a class struggle.?
The incident has revived calls of
support for a private member?s bill that
would outlaw stag-hunting in France.
A debate has been gathering momentum since hunters chased and
killed a stag in the garden of a house in
Lacroix-Saint-Ouen, also in northeast
France, in October.
The incident infuriated activists for
animal rights and prompted the
national hunting federation to open an
inquiry. ?The animal should never have
been on private property,? Pierre de
Boisguilbert, the group?s general secretary, said.
Mr Laveur called for parliament to
approve a private member?s bill introduced last month by Laurence Rossignol, a socialist senator and former gender
equality minister, to outlaw hunting
with hounds from June 1.
Ms Rossignol described it as a ?practice of great brutality? and a ?barbaric
game? that should be banned.
?Sex assault? director gets new project German charged with trying
Italy
Tom Kington Rome
A film director whose career looked
doomed when he was accused of sexual
molestation by ten women may be
bouncing back with a new, three-film
deal after his latest comedy topped
Italy?s box office.
Fausto Brizzi?s recovery from the
scandal is the latest example of how
Italy seems to have ignored the global
backlash against sexual predators
triggered in October by revelations
about Harvey Weinstein, the movie
mogul. Brizzi, 48, was denounced last
month by the Italian TV show Le Iene,
which tracked down actresses who had
attended private auditions at his Rome
apartment.
They claimed Brizzi told them they
needed to prove they could do romantic
scenes. He also offered massages, or
took his clothes off and masturbated
before them, the women alleged. ?He
tried in every way possible to put my
hands on his genitals,? one said.
Brizzi responded by stating: ?I have
never had non-consensual sex.?
The claims were similar to those
made against Harvey Weinstein and
other celebrities, spawning the global
#MeToo campaign in which women
took to Twitter to denounce molestation in everyday life.
In Italy, by contrast, one of Weinstein?s chief accusers was harshly
criticised for going public. Asia Argento, an actress, said he had sexually
assaulted her in 1997 but the claim was
denied by Weinstein and given short
shrift by Vittorio Feltri, editor of Libero,
the right-wing newspaper. He said the
encounter with Weinstein was the price
Argento paid for being a movie star.
Brizzi was defended by Fausto Bruni,
a director, who said the women had
tried to ruin his career with no proof.
Warner Brothers, the studio behind
Brizzi?s Christmas comedy, Poveri ma
Ricchissimi, was not so forgiving. It released the film but banned the director
from taking part in its promotion and
said it would not work with him again.
Despite the bad publicity, the film
triumphed at the box office on Christmas Day, when many Italians go to the
cinema. The comedy, starring Christian
de Sica and Enrico Brignano, was seen
by 125,000, beating Star Wars: The Last
Jedi to the top spot.
Brizzi?s career received a further
boost when it was reported that Luca
Barbareschi, an Italian producer, was
shrugging off the controversy to offer
him a new deal. Barbareschi told La Repubblica newspaper: ?We haven?t
signed anything yet,? but was understood to be offering a three-film deal.
to bomb party headquarters
Germany
No雔-Marie Fletcher Berlin
A 58-year-old man appeared in court
yesterday accused of trying to bomb the
headquarters of Germany?s two biggest
political parties on Christmas Eve.
The unnamed man, who has no criminal record, was at first thought to have
been trying to kill himself when he
drove his Peugeot into the Social
Democratic Party?s building in central
Berlin.
However, when lighter fluid, petrol
canisters and barbecue lighters that
had been placed inside the vehicle partially ignited, police linked the incident
to a bag containing explosives that had
been left outside the central office of
the Christian Democratic Union,
Angela Merkel?s party. In both cases the
explosives failed to detonate.
The driver, who was briefly kept in
hospital with head injuries, was
arrested under suspicion of attempting
extreme arson and trying to detonate
an explosive device. He is from the
Pankow district of Berlin and has no
known links to extremists.
The German chancellor?s party and
the Social Democrats, led by Martin
Schulz, are in negotiations to form a
coalition government after the inconclusive general election in September.
They had been in a ?grand coalition?
since 2013.
A poll released yesterday revealed
that nearly half of all Germans want
Mrs Merkel to leave before the next
elections in 2021.
42
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
World
Couple meeting for
dinner both stopped
to save lives en route
United States
Jacqui Goddard Miami
A husband and wife who were preparing
to meet for dinner each became
embroiled in separate life-or-death
rescue dramas on the way.
Crystal Travis was driving through
Casar, North Carolina, with her
daughter Tori, 14, when she saw a house
on fire and leapt out of her car to help.
Minutes later her husband, Roger, who
was heading to meet them at a restaurant, pulled over to save the life of a baby
who had stopped breathing after a car
accident in Hickory, 20 miles away.
?God put us at the right moment, at
the right time, for the people that
needed us the most,? Mr Travis said.
Mrs Travis and her daughter had
spent Christmas Eve visiting a relative
while her husband was at work. On
their way home, they saw a house with
flames billowing through the roof and
stopped to help the family with a baby,
salvaging their possessions, including
Christmas presents. ?It was just all
really fast, really chaotic,? she said.
Mrs Travis helped to shuttle items
away from the flames, but told her local
television station: ?All of a sudden the
propane tank on their porch explodes.
It shakes the ground and you can feel it
? just the whoosh of it ? and there?s
smoke everywhere and it?s hard to
breathe.?
As Mrs Travis and her daughter left
the scene, coughing and wheezing from
smoke inhalations, Tori called her
father to tell him what happened. They
decided to meet at a local restaurant.
Mr Travis set off, and while driving to
meet his family, he came across a car
crash by a shopping centre in the town
of Hickory. Seeing a group of people
clustered around a baby who was lying
motionless, the former volunteer firefighter pushed his way through the
throng as the child?s panicked mother
pleaded for help.
?I did CPR on the infant and another
firefighter arrived on the scene to assist
me with that and we did get a pulse
back,? he said. The baby suddenly
started crying as it resumed breathing.
The baby was taken to hospital. Mr
Travis admitted to feeling ?scared,
nervous, overwhelmed?.
?I got a bit emotional after things had
calmed down a little bit,? he added,
scorning the suggestion that he had
acted as a hero.
?A hero puts themselves in harm?s
way, sacrifices their life for someone
else. I?m just doing what I was trained to
do,? Mr Travis said.
His wife said: ?What are the odds?
This is the craziest day ever.?
BRNA/FRVI/BACKGRID
Goat beats
arsonists in
nanny state
Sweden
Tom Whipple
There are many things that are impressive about the G鋠le Christmas goat, a
40ft four-tonne wooden statue. The
most impressive thing about it this year
is that it is still standing.
The effigy was introduced in 1966 to
help to bring in tourism ? then burnt
down by vandals. In 1970 the arsonists
struck again. A tradition was started,
just not the tradition tourism chiefs had
The goat has
survived the full
season only three
times this century
Poles apart Angela Merkel, still struggling to form a coalition government with
political rivals with whom she has little in common, took time off this week for
a ski trip in St Moritz ? where she fell and fractured her pelvis three years ago
hoped for. The goat has been hit by
Volvos, taken down by fireworks and
narrowly avoided a plot to kidnap it by
helicopter. In 2005 it was destroyed by
flaming arrows fired by assailants
disguised as gingerbread men. Despite
police protection, intervention by the
army and jail sentences for perpetrators, most years the goat does not see in
Christmas. In fact on only three occasions this century has the goat survived
the full season. But last night G鋠le?s
webcam showed the goat unharmed,
gazing imperiously ? perhaps a little
nervously ? across the traffic.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
43
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Business
world markets (Change on the day)
commodities
FTSE 100
7,620.68 (+28.02)
Gold
$1,286.94 (+4.23)
Nov 27
Dec 5
13
Dow Jones
24,774.30 (+28.09)
21
currencies
$
Brent crude (6pm)
$65.90 (-0.31)
$
�/$
$1.3402 (+0.0034)
$
�/?
?1.1262 (-0.0006)
�
7,800
25,600
1,400
70
1.400
1.200
7,400
24,800
1,300
62
1.350
1.150
7,000
24,000
1,200
54
1.300
1.100
6,600
23,200
1,100
46
1.250
Nov 28
Dec 6
14
22
Nov 28
Dec 6
14
22
Nov 28
Dec 6
14
22
Nov 28
Dec 6
14
22
1.050
Nov 28
Dec 6
14
22
MICHAEL COLE/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES)
Chinese in
driving seat
with deal for
Volvo lorries
Geely stake makes it group?s largest shareholder
Robert Lea Industrial Editor
Geely, the Chinese automotive group
that makes London taxis in Coventry, is
to become the largest shareholder in
the Volvo lorry and busmaker.
Geely has paid Cevian Capital, a
Swedish fund manager, ?3.25 billion
(�9 billion) for an 8.3 per cent stake in
the Stockholm-listed Volvo Group.
Volvo Group, founded just over 100
years ago, has annual revenues of
� billion and employs more than
90,000 people. As well as manufacturing heavy vehicles under its own name
it makes Renault and Mack lorries,
Nova buses and Terex construction
equipment. In continental Europe it
rivals Daimler and Volkswagen to be
the largest lorry and busmaker. Volvo
also has a large minority shareholder in
Dongfeng, China?s largest lorrymaker
and a rival to Geely in the car market.
Geely, based in Hangzhou near
Shanghai, is China?s most multinational automotive group and is quoted on
the Hong Kong stock market with a
value of � billion.
It is an intriguing strategic acquisition. Not only is the Chinese company
developing electric taxis and vans in the
UK at a time when Volvo is beginning to
produce battery-powered lorries, buses
and excavators, it could also be looking
to reunite the Volvo brand: Geely is
already the owner of Volvo Cars, having
bought it from the Ford Motor Company seven years ago.
The company catapulted itself on to
the global scene with its 2010 acquisition of Volvo Cars for $1.5 billion when
Ford was going through its fire sale of
international assets during which it also
jettisoned Jaguar Land Rover for
$2.3 billion to Tata Motors of India.
Under Geely, Volvo Cars, which had
been sold by Volvo Group to Ford in a
$6.4 billion deal in 1999, has been selling
more than half a million units a year.
Geely is the third largest indigenous
manufacturer in the Chinese domestic
market, where it will have sold more
than 1.2 million vehicles this year, and
its overseas profile grew with the acqui-
sition five years ago of London Taxi
International out of bankruptcy.
Relaunched as the London Electric
Vehicle Company it is building hybrid
electric black cabs at a state-of-the-art
factory in Coventry, from where Geely
is also developing hybrid-electric,
home-shopping delivery vans. Last
year Geely also took a 51 per cent stake
in the Norfolk sports car-maker Lotus
and bought Terrafugia, a US technology company developing a street-legal
flying car with foldable wings.
Cevian Capital is a self-styled activist
fund manager with large positions in
some of Europe?s largest industrial
companies, including ABB, Thyssenkrupp and Ericsson. The transfer of
Cevian?s stake gives Geely rights over
15.6 per cent of the voting shares in Volvo Group and a likely seat on the board.
Industrivarden, another Swedish fund
manager with a similar liking for stakes
in industrial companies, has a 6.7 per
cent financial stake but speaks for
22.8 per cent of the voting shares.
According to Cevian, which claims to
have made a ?2 billion profit on the
stake it had built up in Volvo Group
since 2006, the holding puts Geely in
the driving seat at the company.
Christer Gardell, founder and managing partner of Cevian, said that Geely
had approached him two months ago.
?It was important to us that we passed
on our ownership to another good owner,? he said. ?Geely brings a number of
dimensions not least [access to and
knowledge of] the Chinese market. It
has the technical capability to contribute significantly in electrification,
autonomous and connectivity.?
Li Shufu, the founder and chairman
of Geely, said that his company was
buying into the ?breakthrough technologies and environmental capabilities?
of Volvo Group. Volvo is in a technology
race with Tesla of the US to make electric lorries commercial. It has been
working with Siemens, the German
electrical giant, which has been testing
overhead cables that would enable
trucks with pantographs to recharge
their batteries on the move.
On the pace The Goodwood Estate plans to export its motorsports festival brand outside the UK to the Middle East Page 49
Borrowing costs set to rise in 2018
Philip Aldrick, Callum Jones
Households face higher borrowing
costs next year regardless of whether
the Bank of England raises interest
rates, according to a survey of 50 leading economists by The Times.
Two thirds of respondents predict
that policymakers will lift the official
interest rate at least once in 2018. More
than nine in ten also forecast an increase
in the benchmark rate for government
debt, used to price almost all aspects of
personal and consumer borrowing
from mortgages to business loans.
An increase of 0.5 per cent in effective interest rates would add about �
a month to the cost of a �5,000 repayment mortgage. Just under half of respondents believe that market rates will
rise by 0.5 percentage points next year.
The findings of The Times fourth
annual survey suggest that households
face a further squeeze on living standards in addition to high inflation and
weak growth as the economy inches
forward and Brexit concerns continue
to affect sentiment.
The starkest warning, though, is on
borrowing costs. The majority expect
the Bank to raise rates by at least quarter point to 0.75 per cent but market
rates to climb more rapidly.
All but three respondents expect
effective interest rates to rise. A quarter
reckon the ten-year gilt could end the
year at least 0.75 per cent higher than
the current rate of 1.24 per cent, equivalent to three official rate rises.
David Owen of Jefferies and Michelle Lam, a senior economist at Lombard
Street Research, say that the European
Central Bank?s decision to wind down
quantitative easing will deplete demand for gilts and force yields up to 2
per cent.
Last year?s survey proved to be surprisingly close to the mark. Most
warned that inflation would climb
above 3 per cent. It has hit 3.1 per cent.
Most warned of stalling London house
prices. They have grown at half the
national average of 2 per cent at best.
Growth predictions were clustered
around 1.4 per cent, just below the
OBR?s estimate for 2017 of 1.5 per cent.
On interest rates, the vast majority
forecast them to be held at 0.25 per cent
but many anticipated that rates would
increase than be cut. The Bank raised
rates by a quarter point in November.
The latest survey is more optimistic
for UK GDP growth than the Office for
Budget Responsibility, the government?s independent advisory body.
Half of respondents expect growth of
1.5 per cent or better next year and 13
others have the range between 1.25 per
cent to 1.5 per cent, beating the OBR
prediction of 1.4 per cent. With Brexit
still weighing on households through
high inflation and on businesses
through uncertainty, Britain will be
outclassed by the eurozone.
The Times annual survey, pages 44-45
44
1G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Business
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Volume: 315
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May
00.00-00.00
Money rates %
Base Rates Clearing Banks: 0.50
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US Fed Fd 1.25-1.50
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Interbank Rates
Clearer CDs
Depo CDs
1 mth
0.4944
0.50-0.40
0.50-0.40
2 mth
0.5054
0.52-0.42
0.52-0.42
3 mth
0.5153
0.54-0.44
0.54-0.44
6 mth
0.5771
0.65-0.50
0.65-0.50
12 mth
0.7675
0.81-0.66
0.81-0.66
Eurodollar Deps
1.57-1.77
1.60-1.80
1.66-1.86
1.81-2.01
2.08-2.28
Dollar rates
Australia
Canada
Denmark
Euro
Hong Kong
Japan
Malaysia
Norway
Singapore
Sweden
Switzerland
Exchange rates
1.2857-1.2859
1.2635-1.2640
6.2571-6.2576
0.8404-0.8405
7.8122-7.8127
113.31-113.32
4.0723-4.0773
8.2692-8.2720
1.3387-1.3397
8.2702-8.2716
0.9869-0.9870
Other Sterling
Argentina peso
Australia dollar
Bahrain dinar
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Euro
Hong Kong dollar
India rupee
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Kuwait dinar KD
Malaysia ringgit
New Zealand dollar
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S Africa rand
U A E dirham
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1.7224-1.7226
0.5019-0.5086
4.4355-4.4395
1.1258-1.1260
10.465-10.466
85.946-85.973
18112-18124
0.4037-0.4059
5.4563-5.4630
1.8943-1.8948
1.7938-1.7943
16.486-16.498
4.9218-4.9231
Bank buys
Australia $
Canada $
Denmark Kr
Egypt
Euro �
Hong Kong $
Hungary
Indonesia
Israel Shk
Japan Yen
New Zealand $
Norway Kr
Poland
Russia
S Africa Rd
Sweden Kr
Switzerland Fr
Turkey Lira
USA $
1.890
1.860
9.020
n/a
1.230
11.230
386.220
20866.900
5.120
163.980
2.130
12.090
5.220
84.030
18.700
11.930
1.460
5.680
1.460
Bank sells
1.650
1.620
7.910
n/a
1.080
9.880
317.750
16644.600
4.370
142.010
1.810
10.450
4.280
69.970
15.840
10.600
1.250
4.860
1.280
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Go to thetimes.co.uk
for more updates
The Times annual survey suggests that turbulence
from Brexit will not be as damaging as many fear,
Philip Aldrick, Callum Jones, Tom Knowles report
E
conomics may be a dismal
science but the predictions
for the year ahead are not as
bad as might have been
expected. The 50
respondents to the fourth annual
economics survey by The Times are
confident that a hard Brexit on World
Trade Organisation rules will be
avoided, the squeeze on living
standards will end and growth is
more likely to overshoot official
forecasts than fall short.
The only group for which there is
strong agreement that 2018 will not
be kind is London homeowners:
economists expect house prices to
drop by as much as 5 per cent in the
capital next year while creeping up
nationally.
That said, the panel of economists,
which includes some prominent
Leave supporters, accepts almost
unanimously that 2018 will be a
volatile year. Markets will bounce
around and the pound, described as
?a Brexit barometer? by Capital
Economics? Paul Hollingsworth, will
gyrate wildly, much as it has in 2017.
Vicky Pryce, former joint head of
the Government Economic Service,
best expresses the sense of
unpredictability. ?The possibilities are
unending: there could be further rifts
in the Tory cabinet, there may have
been a new leader or another election
by year-end,? she says. ?A lot of
turbulence is likely.?
Even so, the 50 economists are
fairly sanguine about the risks as the
country counts down 12 of the final 15
months to Brexit Day.
Talks will proceed, if not smoothly
then sufficiently for the UK to secure
a transition deal and withdrawal
agreement by the year end. Ruth Lea,
economic adviser to the Arbuthnot
Banking Group, who supported
leaving the EU, puts the chances of a
no-deal hard Brexit at 25 per cent but
that is the highest probability the
panel has to offer.
The majority of respondents reckon
GDP growth next year will be at least
as strong as the 1.5 per cent that the
Office for Budget Responsibility has
estimated for 2017 and better than the
1.4 per cent forecast for 2018.
Households face another difficult
year but wages are broadly expected
to start rising faster than prices,
easing the squeeze on living standards
that has been in force for seven
months. Sterling will end the year
around its current level of $1.34.
Borrowing costs will rise, whether
there is an interest rate
increase or not, as
markets drive up thee
cost of government
debt, but most
economists expect
one or two more
moves by the
Bank of England.
GROWTH
Kathleen Brooks,
research director at
City Index, capturess
ost
the panel?s mood most
wth
succinctly. GDP growth
ll be
in 2018, she says, will
ind our peers,
?lacklustre, way behind
but not disastrous?.
Most respondents expect the
economy to expand by more than 1.5
per cent, making them more
optimistic than the Office for Budget
Responsibility, but Britain will be in
the slow lane compared with the
eurozone. On average, respondents
believe the single currency bloc will
achieve growth of about 0.75
percentage points above the UK in
2018.
Some hold far stronger views.
Joanna Davies, senior economist at
Fathom Consulting, is the most
pessimistic, with a forecast for 0.3 per
cent growth and ?a mild technical
recession? of two consecutive quarters
of contraction. Inflation will remain
at 3 per cent with wages weaker, Ms
Davies reckons, hammering the
consumer.
At the other end of the spectrum
are Patrick Minford, professor of
economics at Cardiff University, and
Gerard Lyons, chief economic adviser
at Policy Exchange, both of whom
supported Brexit and reckon growth
will be 2 per cent. Mr Hollingsworth
at Capital Economics, which was
founded by Brexit-supporting Roger
Bootle, is more optimistic still at 2.2
per cent.
All three see inflation falling faster
and wages picking up more quickly.
Reading between the lines, Britain?s
fortunes next year appear to rest on
the return of real wage growth now
that the prospect of another spending
boost from an expanding labour force
is receding.
Philip Shaw, chief economist at
Investec, adds: ?The economy?s
performance should be supported by
the recent budget, 4 per cent global
growth and falling inflation, which
should help to ease the squeeze on
consumer spending.?
Progress on Brexit negotiations will
also dictate UK prospects, as Sonali
Punhani, an economist at Credit
Suisse, notes. Her forecast of 1.8 per
cent growth is based on the
assumption that ?a transition period
with the EU lasting at least two years,
maintaining the UK?s position in the
single market and custom union? is
agreed, giving business enough
certainty to step up investment.
Predictions for next year
Economists? reponses
By the end of 2018 ...
What will be the Bank of England?s
base rate?
0 1
0.25% 0
15
13
14
0.50%
0.75%
1%
1.25%
4
1.50% 0
1.75% 0
2%
1
Where will the sterling/US dollar
exchange rate be?
$1.000 - $1.049
0
$1.050 - $1.099
1
1
$1.100 - $1.149
$1.150 - $1.199
0
4
$1.200 - $1.249
10
10
$1.250 - $1.299
$1.300 - $1.349
$1.350 - $1.399
6
8
$1.400 - $1.449
$1.450 - $1.499 0
1
$1.500 - $1.549
Where will the benchmark
ten-year gilt yield be?
3
1.0 - 1.249%
6
1.25 - 1.499%
12
1.5 - 1.749%
1.75 - 1.999%
8
2.0 - 2.249%
8
2.25 - 2.499% 0
2.5 - 2.749%
1
2.75 - 2.999%
1
3.0 - 3.249%
1
Where will inflation be?
1.0 - 1.249% 0
1.25 - 1.499%
1.5 - 1.749%
1.75 - 1.999%
1
1
1
2.0 - 2.249%
BREXIT
Any poll of economists on Brexit will
be tinged by the regret most of them
feel about the referendum result, but
there is a grudging optimism that,
difficult as they are, negotiations will
progress fruitfully this year. Only two
say there is a genuine prospect of the
UK ending the year on course for a
hard Brexit on WTO rules while 36
reckon that the heads of terms for a
trade deal will be agreed and a
transition pe
period put in
place.
Jagji
Jagjit Chadha,
direc
director of the
Nat
National Institute
of Economic and
So
Social
Research
th
think
tank, says:
? am slightly
?I
m
more
optimistic
th I was a year
than
ag
g as the costs of
ago
no [agreeing a
not
deep trading
agreem
g
agreement
on goods
and serv
services], especially
threats to th
threats
the Irish peace
accord, seem mo
more apparent.?
Th majority
j i view
i is that a
The
withdrawal agreement establishing a
set of principles for a free trade deal
will be struck as scheduled by
October. Sceptics among that group,
such as David Miles, professor of
12
2.25 - 2.499%
14
2.5 - 2.749%
2.75 - 2.999%
3.0 - 3.249%
12
1
3
financial economics at Imperial
College London, caution that it will
only be for goods. ?Services will be
messy,? he says, adding that there is ?a
30 per cent chance of a second
referendum? and a 20 per cent chance
Brexit is abandoned altogether.
David Owen, chief European
economist at Jefferies, agrees that it is
unlikely to be an easy process and
that the politics ?could prove toxic?.
David Blanchflower, professor of
economics at Dartmouth College and
a former Bank of England rate-setter,
suggests that the government will
hold a ?second referendum and then
abandon [Brexit]?.
Most optimistic, predictably, is Mr
Minford, head of Economists for Free
Trade and a leading Brexiteer. He
argues that Brussels will give Britain
the deal it wants because the
alternative would be too painful for
Europe.
No one else is quite so sure that
Brussels will cave in to all of
Westminster?s demands. Philip Booth,
senior academic fellow at the Institute
for Economic Affairs, sees the tenor
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
45
1G M
Business
reasons to be cheerful about 2018
Will the UK end the year without outline
terms for an EU free trade deal and be
facing Brexit on WTO rules?
Yes
UK GDP
0 0 - 0.249%
Unsure
2
1
9
0.25 - 0.499%
0 0.5 - 0.749%
0 0.75 - 0.999%
No
1.0 - 1.249%
8
36
13
1.25 - 1.499%
13
1.5 - 1.749%
1.75 - 1.999%
5
2.0 - 2.249%
3
1
Will the UK abandon Brexit or be
given a second referendum?
2.25 - 2.499%
0 2.5 - 2.749%
Yes
No
1
33
0 2.75 - 2.999%
0 3.0 - 3.249%
Eurozone GDP
0 0 - 0.249%
Unsure
0 0.25 - 0.499%
5
0 0.5 - 0.749%
0 0.75 - 0.999%
0 1.0 - 1.249%
0 1.25 - 1.499%
1
9
1.75 - 1.999%
13
2.0 - 2.249%
8
Is Philip Hammond doing a
good job as chancellor?
2.25 - 2.499%
7
Yes
No
28
6
1.5 - 1.749%
2.5 - 2.749%
1
2.75 - 2.999%
1
3.0 - 3.249%
Where will Brent crude end the year?
0 $35 - $39
1
$40 - $44
1
$45 - $49
3
$50 - $54
$55 - $59
11
London house prices
UK house prices
Rise
19
Fall
7
Stabilise
13
Rise
7
Fall
17
$60 - $64
13
Stabilise
8
1
$70 - $74
3
1
of talks next year rather differently.
?The UK government is not in a
position to do anything other than
stumble from crisis to crisis. It will not
be able to dictate the agenda and will
end up accepting what it is given,? he
says.
PRICES
Inflation broke through 3 per cent
this year for the first time since early
2012 but only three respondents
expect prices still to be climbing at
the same pace in a year?s time. The
majority of respondents expect
inflation to be between 2.25 per cent
and 2.75 per cent next December.
As for pay, ?a tight labour market
should mean wages tick back above
consumer inflation by the year end?,
Simon French, chief economist at the
investment bank Panmure Gordon,
says. Like him, most respondents
believe the squeeze on living
standards should lift as
unemployment remains low and
growth continues to generate jobs.
The surge in inflation since the
Brexit vote has been mainly down to
sterling?s near-20 per cent fall against
the dollar. As more than a year has
passed, the direct currency effect has
worked through. Although the
currency will be volatile it is expected
to end the year roughly where it
starts at about $1.34. Respondents are
divided equally between those who
say there will be a deflationary
appreciation in sterling and those
who predict an inflationary
depreciation.
If the pound does weaken further, it
may be more to do with the strength
of the US economy rather than Brexit
fears. George Magnus, an
independent economist and associate
at Oxford University?s China Centre,
points to another risk. ?A hard Brexit
and the prospect of a Corbyn
government could quite easily
unhinge the pound,? he warns.
Oil prices are broadly expected to
ease by as much as $10 from current
levels of about $65 a barrel, which
should dampen inflation. ?The
ongoing resilience of shale output [in
the US] should temper the path of oil
prices going forward,? Alpesh Paleja,
principal economist at the CBI, says.
Andrew Sentance, senior economic
adviser to PWC, is of the opposite
view, that ?strong world growth is
likely to exert further upward
pressure? and carry Brent to $70 a
barrel.
RATES
The nearest the survey gets to
delivering a cast-iron prediction is
that borrowing costs will rise. Of the
50 respondents, 32 expect at least one
increase in 2018 from current levels of
0.5 per cent. Nineteen forecast rates
to end the year at 1 per cent or higher.
Only Mr Blanchflower forecasts a cut
? to 0 per cent.
Considering that it was only in
November that the Bank raised rates
for the first time in a decade, the hit
to borrowing could come as a shock if
predictions play out.
Higher borrowing costs are not
only about Bank decisions, though.
Although 16 economists are
forecasting rates to be unchanged or
reduced, only three think government
borrowing costs will hold steady. The
$65 - $69
$75 - $79
vast majority predict that the
benchmark ten-year gilt yield will rise
from today?s rate of 1.24 per cent,
which will push up mortgage and
corporate loan rates.
?Yields will be dragged higher by
global developments ? strong global
growth and tighter monetary policy
in the likes of the US,? James
Knightley, chief international
economist at ING bank, says. The US
Federal Reserve is raising rates and
unwinding quantitative easing.
Mr Owen at Jefferies warns that
foreign buyers of UK government
debt could dry up as the European
Central Bank starts pulling back on
QE too. ?As QE comes to an end on
the continent so the gilt market will
lose this support,? he says.
Mr Magnus once again points to
Brexit dangers: ?The risk premium
could be higher if Brexit and sterling
news were to be significantly worse
than people currently discount.?
George Buckley, chief UK
economist at Nomura, reckons gilt
yields could soar to 2.5 per cent while
headline rates climb to just 1 per cent.
Andrew Goodwin, lead UK economist
at the consultancy Oxford
Economics, does not expect the Bank
to move rates but does expect the
ten-year gilt yield to climb 0.6
percentage points to 1.9 per cent.
Homeowners may be able to
stomach higher rates. As Howard
Archer, chief economic adviser to the
EY Item Club, points out: ?Mortgage
interest rates are still at historically
low levels.?
HOUSING
What respondents to last year?s
survey nailed most clearly was the
near-stalling in London house prices.
According to the latest official data,
house price inflation in the capital
was 2.1 per cent, less than half the
national average. Other indices have
reported a sharper slowdown more
recently.
This year, the panel is adamant that
prices in the capital will fall while
they rise in the rest of the country.
Nationally, the increase is expected to
be meagre. Many respondents
forecast growth of about 2 per cent
but for London prices are forecast to
drop by up to 5 per cent.
Mr Knightley is more pessimistic
still. House prices will drop 8 per cent
in London and 2 per cent nationally,
he warns. ?There is more froth and
London is more exposed to Brexit
risks given the importance of financial
services and foreign investors,? he
says. The capital?s soaraway
performance in recent years, which
has driven the average house price to
�1,000 compared with the UK
average of �3,807, will be over.
A few predict meagre rises in
London but the outlier is Mr Minford.
He sees a house price boom ahead,
with increases of 7 per cent both
nationally and in the capital.
CHANCELLOR
Philip Hammond has had a tricky
year. A U-turn on raising national
insurance for the self-employed in his
March budget was followed by a
series of bruising cabinet battles and
malicious briefings. The occasional
gaffe, such as labelling the negotiators
in Brussels ?the enemy?, did not help.
However, after his solid autumn
budget, which steadied the Tory
party, he can fall back on
overwhelming support from the
economics profession. Of the 34
respondents who offer an opinion, 28
say the chancellor is doing a good job.
Part of that may be because his
vision of Brexit fits with the
consensus among economists but the
support is underwhelming. ?Philip
Hammond is a safe pair of hands but
not a radical reforming chancellor,?
Mr Sentance says.
Others welcome Mr Hammond?s
decision to slow the pace of deficit
reduction. ?He has made the best of a
bad job so far, being less obviously
austerity focused, though he has
scope to relax the public sector pay
cap and something needs to be done
to tackle Universal Credit,? Peter
Dixon, chief UK economist at
Commerzbank, says.
Others, such as Matthew
Whittaker, chief economist at the
Resolution Foundation think tank,
say the chancellor has ?missed some
big opportunities? and remains on
course ?to preside over the sharpest
rise in income inequality in the UK
since Margaret Thatcher was prime
minister?.
Stephen King, senior economic
adviser at HSBC, finds an alternative
reason to praise the chancellor: ?His
budget jokes are more amusing than I
had expected.?
46
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
1G M
Business
IWG shares soar after takeover approach
Alexandra Frean
A British serviced office provider said it
had received an all-cash takeover
approach from two Canadian investors,
sending its shares rocketing.
The shares in IWG rose nearly 28 per
cent to 256p on news of the proposal,
before closing at 254絧. The offer
follows months of speculation about
the future of the company.
IWG operates the Regus brand and
runs offices in nearly 3,000 locations in
115 countries. It was founded 30 years
ago by the entrepreneur Mark Dixon,
who left school at 16 and began his
working life selling peat from a wheelbarrow. Last year, IWG made profits
before tax of �3.7 million from revenues of more than �2 billion. The
company did not disclose the terms of
the offer from Brookfield Asset Management, a global alternative asset
manager and joint owner of London?s
Canary Wharf Group, and Onex, a private equity group, saying in a statement
only that ?there can be no certainty
that any offer will be made for the company, nor as to the terms on which any
offer might be made?.
A successful bid would mean a big
payday for Mr Dixon, 58, who owns
25 per cent of IWG. He sold 27.3 million
shares in a placing at 345.1p in June,
raising �.2 million. It was the latest in
a series of share sale transactions by
Mr Dixon, who has cashed in about
�3 million of shares since 2005.
Confirmation of the offer comes after
an unexpected profits warning in Octo-
ber when IWG admitted that its sales in
the third quarter had not been as strong
as hoped. The company, whose shares
have fallen nearly 25 per cent in the past
six months, said at the time that it had
been affected by weakness in the
London office market, because of the
Brexit vote, and disruption from natural disasters in the US and Mexico.
It is also facing competition from the
American start-up Wework, the biggest
private office tenant in London, which
has been at the forefront of revolutionising the once-mundane world of serviced offices by renting out shared
workspaces in communal office buildings that entrepreneurs and small
start-ups can rent by the month or even
the hour.
The Canadians? approach comes
6 Ascential, the London-based trade
magazine publisher and exhibitions
company formerly known as Emap,
has bought Clavis Insight, a Dublin
tech company that provides data
analysis to help groups such as
Unilever, L?Or閍l and Nestl� improve
their ecommerce, for up to
$219 million. The price includes
$119 million in cash, plus payments of
up to $100 million based on Clavis?s
revenue in the next three years.
Ascential, which is listed on the
London Stock Exchange, said it
expected Clavis?s revenue to be
$17 million in 2017, up from
$13 million a year earlier. It is
expected to break even in 2018.
Ascential?s shares rose 1p to 37p.
amid a flurry of interest in the London
office market. The Office Group, a British company, was sold to Blackstone in
June for �0 million. London Executive Offices, a provider of premium
workspaces, has reportedly drawn
takeover interest from bidders including Ellerman Investments, a vehicle
owned by Sir David and Sir Federick
Barclay, the billionaire twin brothers
who own The Daily Telegraph.
Brookfield Asset Management, based
in Toronto, is one of the world?s biggest
real-estate investors and manages
$269 billion in property, infrastructure,
private equity and renewable energy investments. Onex?s businesses have assets worlwide of $45 billion. Under takeover rules, the bidders have until January 20 to make an official offer.
MARK LENNIHAN/AP PHOTO
Top five biggest UK IPOs by deal value
1. EN+ Group, utility and energy
2. J2 Acquisition, British Virgin Islands
3. Sherborne Investors, a cash shell
4. Biopharma Credit, finance
5. Glenveagh Properties, property
Top five biggest global IPOs by deal value
1. Snap, owner of Snapchat
2. Pirelli, Italian auto company
3. Landis & Gyr, Swiss technology
4. Netmarble Games, S Korean technology
5. Altice USA, US telecom
Miranda Kerr, centre, at the
stock market launch of
Snap, which is run by her
husband Evan Spiegel
$1.5bn
$1.2bn
$906m
$762m
$646m
Source: Dealogic
$3.9bn
$2.8bn
$2.4bn
$2.3bn
$2.1bn
City floats give Europe
that sinking feeling
I
t is not damning with
faint praise to
describe the UK
equity capital
markets in 2017 as
?pretty strong? or ?quite
robust? (Deirdre
Hipwell writes). It
simply reflects the fact
that while 2017 may not
have been a vintage
year, the City had an
impressive 12 months
overall when it came to
both the primary and
secondary equity
markets.
Data from Dealogic,
the financial
information provider,
shows that 88
companies floated on
London?s main and
junior stock exchanges
in initial public offerings
that collectively were
valued at nearly
$14 billion. This was up
from the 62 companies
that listed in 2016 with a
total value of just under
$6.9 billion.
It was a larger haul
than across Europe,
where 285 flotations
with a total value of
$47.3 billion took place,
highlighting the City?s
dominance of European
capital markets. The
London Stock Exchange
remains one of the
world?s most prestigious
listing venues and a
spokesman for the
exchange said that just
over � billion was
raised in the City this
year: ?Nine of the top
ten IPOs by size came
from outside the UK.?
Some of the biggest
flotations in London
included En+ Group, the
Russian energy-tometals group controlled
by Oleg Deripaska,
which listed in a
$1.5 billion deal, and J2
Acquisitions, set up by
former executives at the
American consumer
group Jarden, which
floated in a $1.2 billion
transaction. J2 was one
of a number of ?blank
cheque? companies that
chose to float in London
this year, with others
including Ed Bramson?s
Sherborne Investors and
Landscape Acquisitions,
set up by Noam
Gottesman and Michael
Fascitelli. Tom Johnson,
head of equity capital
markets for Europe, the
Middle East and Africa
at Barclays, said:
?Generally speaking,
2017 has been a good
year for equity capital
market products overall.
The financial
institutions sector was a
big theme for the year
and I expect it will be
busy again next year.?
Although there were
some ?pulled? listings in
London this year, most
notably Arqiva, the
mobile mast company,
and Cabot Credit
Management, the debt
collector, market
experts said those had
failed because of specific
issues, such as the
pricing and structuring
of the float.
Achintya Mangla,
head of equity capital
markets for Europe, the
Middle East and Africa
at JP Morgan, said that
2017 had been a ?pretty
strong year?, and added:
?This has been driven by
a number of factors such
as low volatility and
strong corporate
earnings which provide
a very constructive
environment for initial
public offerings. The UK
has remained a key
listing venue across the
board.? He said that he
expected ?more of the
same? in 2018 and
forecast that there could
be a ?greater diversity of
IPOs?.
6 The picture for global
listings has also been
rosy this year with
almost 1,700 companies
floating ? the largest
number since the
financial crisis.
According to Dealogic,
the 44 per cent increase
from 2016 was driven by
a record number of
Chinese and American
companies listing.
Boston project keeps Balfour on track Plunging carbon emissions
Robert Lea Industrial Editor
Balfour Beatty?s American operations
are to pick up a significant share of a
contentious $1 billion extension to
Boston?s oldest subway line.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, a publicly owned public
transport network, has been given federal approval for the long-planned extension of its Green Line from Boston
north to the city of Somerville in the
sprawling east coast conurbation.
The $1.08 billion contract to build a
five-mile rail extension with seven new
stations has been awarded to a consortium of Balfour Beatty with Fluor Corporation, the American engineering
and construction multinational; a
smaller local construction company,
Middlesex Corp; and the specialist railbuilder Herzog Contracting.
Balfour Beatty is Britain?s biggest
construction
company,
employs
30,000 people and has annual revenues
of �5 billion. One of the UK?s main
road and rail contractors, it has responsibility for operating and maintaining
the M25 London orbital motorway and
has won key contracts to deliver the
High Speed Two north-south railway.
A 25 per cent holder in the consortium to build the Green Line extension,
Balfour Beatty is in line to receive more
than �0 million of revenues from a
job that is due to be delivered by 2021.
The extension has been a stop-start
project that should have begun as long
ago as 1990. It was first envisaged as
part of the fight to lower automotive
emissions and improve air quality in
the greater Boston area but the project
has been plagued by rows about its cost.
Its total cost has been put at $2.3 billion.
Balfour Beatty has had a rollercoaster few years after multiple profit warnings in 2013 and 2014, which led to it
being partially broken up. Leo Quinn,
its chief executive, said: ?It?s satisfactory that we end 2017 with another landmark contract win.? He cited appointments to HS2, the Hinkley Point
nuclear power station and on the
Southern Gateway roads project in
Dallas. The shares in Balfour Beatty are
ending the year at a seven-month high,
closing last night 4p to the good at 291p.
result in a green Christmas
Tom Knowles
This year failed to deliver a white
Christmas for most parts of Britain but
it was the greenest, according to
researchers.
Carbon emissions from electric
power stations were only 142 grams per
kilowatt hour (kWh) on Christmas Day,
more than 10 per cent lower than a year
earlier, according to researchers at
Imperial College London and Drax, the
energy company that operates the largest power station in the UK.
Gas generators provided more than
30 per cent of the required capacity and
coal supplied only 1.4 per cent on Christ-
mas Day, compared with 17.9 per cent
for gas and 7.1 per cent for coal in 2016.
Iain Staffell of Imperial College
London said: ?This was achieved in
spite of generation from renewables
being lower than on Christmas Day last
year; mainly due to the continued reduction in coal over this year, being
swapped for gas power stations.?
On April 22 this year Britain generated electricity for a whole day without
burning coal for the first time since the
Victorian era, as environmental measures and subsidised renewable plants
reduce the need to use coal.
The government plans to shut down
all coal plants by 2025.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
47
1G M
Business
Ian King
Sharpest rise
in output for
two years,
CBI reports
Ten predictions for the new year,
led by boom from Trump tax cuts
??
Ian King is business presenter for Sky News. Ian King Live is broadcast at 6.30pm from Monday to Thursday
The US dollar did
not reach parity
with the euro in
2017 but nearly
every other
prediction made in this space on this
day last year proved spot on.
A forecast that ?global GDP will
surprise on the upside? was accurate,
thanks to a strong showing from the
US and eurozone economies, as was a
prediction that ?the rate of growth in
UK consumer spending will slow
markedly?. The latest official figures
suggest that consumer spending
during the third quarter of the year
was up only 1 per cent year on year,
making it the weakest quarter since
the first three months of 2012.
Another accurate call was that ?it
will be a big year for the Post Office?:
the state-owned organisation has just
reported its first profit for 16 years.
It was predicted that Apple shares
would rise by more than 10 per cent,
and with only a couple of trading
sessions left to go the shares are up by
47 per cent so far in 2017.
So what of 2018? Here, with the
usual caveats, are ten predictions.
6 It will be a record year for global
mergers and acquisitions activity.
American corporations will enjoy a
boost from the Trump tax cuts and as
money is repatriated it will be put to
work. Bankers suggest that M&A
could be up in Latin America next
year as the region?s economy
continues to pick up pace, while the
mood in Asia, notwithstanding the
antics of Kim Jong-un, is also positive.
Global M&A topped $2.5 trillion in
2017; next year it could hit $3 trillion.
6 Analyst research will become more
polarised after Mifid II. ?Unbundling?
means that brokers must start
charging for their research. This will
lead to fewer research analysts but it
also means that those analysts who
survive will have to come up with
punchier insights and
recommendations to justify charging
for their work. A FTSE 100 chief
executive says that it is already
happening: ?There is less of a herd
mentality. We?re seeing a lot more
polarised thinking towards our
business, with fewer people saying
?hold? and bunching in with the pack
and many more coming up with
straightforward ?buy? or ?sell?
recommendations.?
6 The European Central Bank will
end its asset purchase programme.
ALAMY
The coming year will bring a record number of Chinese visitors to Europe
With the eurozone having surprised
to the upside in 2017, and likely to
grow by at least 2 per cent in 2018 if
not more, there will be no further
justification for quantitative easing.
However, despite a very gradual pickup in inflation Mario Draghi,
president of the ECB, will be in no
hurry to do away with negative
interest rates and these will persist
into 2019.
6 Glencore shares will rise. The
mining and trading house has
enjoyed a 35 per cent rise in 2017 but
there is more to come. This month?s
investor update was encouraging,
mapping a coherent growth strategy
for coming years, in particular
highlighting prospects for cobalt, a
key component in the lithium ion
batteries that power electric cars. It is
also well placed to exploit further
upside in the rampant zinc price.
Trading at a discount to many of its
peers, the shares should rise by at
least 5 per cent in 2018, even more so
if the chief executive Ivan Glasenberg
returns some of Glencore?s prodigious
free cashflow to investors.
6 The number of jobs lost as a result
of artificial intelligence will rise
dramatically; 2018 will be the year in
which the ?internet of things? gathers
momentum and a record number of
positions are displaced by computer
systems capable of learning and
reasoning on their own and using
applications such as speech
recognition. Artificial intelligence will
eventually create more jobs than it
destroys but not next year.
6 There will be no announcement on
the new Bank of England governor.
Mark Carney?s term is due to expire
in June 2019. Under normal
circumstances his successor ought to
be known by the end of 2018. But the
chances are that the government will
hold off as ministers and civil servants
instead focus on concluding a Brexit
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deal. Andrew Bailey, head of the
Financial Conduct Authority, remains
the man to beat.
6 The oil price will finish the year
little changed. The Opec cartel of oil
producers agreed last month to
extend production cuts by 1.8 million
barrels per day through to the end of
2018. But non-Opec production, led
by the US, Canada and Brazil, is
expected to rise by at least 1.5 million
barrels per day, while oil stocks across
OECD countries are at a high.
Towards the end of 2018 Opec will
discuss extending production cuts into
2019. There will not be a sharp fall in
prices. Barring ?black swan? events
such as wars, Brent crude should trade
at $55 to $65 a barrel all year.
6 Amazon will enter financial
services in a big way. It will not
become a fully regulated bank but will
start to offer a number of services. It
already makes loans to smaller and
mid-sized companies and in some
European markets has a ?pay with
Amazon? service similar to Paypal. It
has also partnered with organisations
such as Capitol One to allow
customers to transact with it via
Amazon?s Alexa service. More trusted
than most banks, and owning more
data on customer transactions than
almost any other organisation on the
planet, it could wreak havoc in the
financial services sector.
6 The US Federal Reserve will raise
interest rates three times next year.
The strength of the economy and the
tightness of the labour market will
oblige the Fed to make three quarterpoint increases. By contrast, reflecting
lacklustre earnings growth and its
conviction that the recent spike in
inflation is a temporary phenomenon
caused by the drop in the pound, the
Bank of England will raise rates only
once, and by only a quarter point.
6 There will be a boom in Chinese
tourism. Canada has recently made
it easier for Chinese tourists to visit
and with more than 1.5 million
Canadians boasting Chinese ancestry
there will be no shortage of visitors.
But next year is also the EU-China
Tourism Year and that will bring
record numbers of Chinese
visitors to Europe.
Sterling?s weakness
means that Britain
will be a major
beneficiary.
Simon Nixon is away
??
Tom Knowles Economics Correspondent
Business activity in the UK ended the
year on a high note after manufacturers, service sector companies and retailers reported the sharpest rise in output in two years, according to the CBI.
Britain?s biggest business lobby group
said that a survey of 642 companies
across the three sectors showed that
growth in the private sector in the three
months to December rose to a balance
of 19 per cent. This was up from a
balance of 6 per cent in three months to
November and is the highest reading
recorded since December 2015.
The balance is calculated from three
surveys the CBI conducts for the sectors
in which companies are asked whether
their output has gone up or declined and
the figures for rises and falls are combined. The composite balance drawn
from combining the results from all
three sectors is seen as giving a good
early perspective on economic activity.
The CBI, which speaks for 190,000
businesses of all sizes and sectors and
whose members employ nearly seven
million people, said that growth was
broad based, with all sectors reporting
robust growth in the past three months.
Manufacturing continues to perform
particularly well, with factories reporting their strongest order books in three
decades, boosted by the cheap pound
and a strengthening global economy.
The services sector, which makes up
80 per cent of the UK economy, showed
notable improvement from November.
Business and professional services
picked up after three flat months, while
consumer services recovered after falling in November at their fastest pace
since April 2013. However, private sector growth is set to return to a more
?moribund? 4 per cent over the next
three months, with growth set to stall
across the services sector and to slow in
retail and manufacturing.
Anna Leach, the CBI?s head of economic intelligence, said: ?Private sector
firms are enjoying healthy activity
levels, but mediocre expectations for
growth underline the ongoing challenges facing companies. Persistent cost
pressures will ensure that inflation remains at a high level, perpetuating the
squeeze on household spending.?
The CBI expects growth in the economy to remain subdued, at an average
of 0.3 per cent each quarter, about half
the average rate seen since 2013. The
economy grew by 0.4 per cent in the
third quarter of 2016, the most recent
official figures that are available.
48
1G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Business
Chinese smartphone giant faces bribery investigation
Rising salaries offer ?chink
of light? to jobseekers
Chinese police have opened an
investigation into Huawei
Technologies after a head of sales at
the smartphone maker was detained
on suspicion of accepting bribes.
Huawei Technologies told staff in a
memo that Teng Hongfei, sales head
for the company?s consumer business
division in China, had been detained
for ?the suspected crime of accepting
bribes as a non-state functionary?.
Huawei declined to provide further
details about the allegations but
added: ?We take our business ethics
extremely seriously and have zero
tolerance for corrupt behaviour.?
The company, which was founded
Salaries have increased on an annual
basis for the first time since June 2015
representing a ?chink of light? for
jobseekers after a period of stagnant
wage growth, according to Adzuna.
The online jobs search engine said
average salaries advertised on its site
had risen by 1.2 per cent in November
to �,598, compared with the same
period last year. For the past two
years wage growth has failed to keep
pace with inflation and fell by 0.4 per
cent in real terms in October. Adzuna
said the biggest rise in salaries was in
London, where the rate increased by
2.2 per cent to �,457.
First oil production will
help Premier to cut debt
Premier Oil told investors that it had
produced first oil from its main
development in the North Sea in a
significant boost to its efforts to bring
down its debt mountain. The
company said that initial production
at the Catcher field, off Aberdeen,
should stabilise at 10,000 barrels of oil
a day, but it hopes that output will
increase to 60,000 barrels a day.
Premier said the development would
help to reduce its debts, which were
$2.8 billion at the end of September.
Its shares rose 2絧 to 78緋.
by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in
the People?s Liberation Army, is the
world?s third-largest maker of
smartphones and has a 22.3 per cent
share of the Chinese market after
overtaking Apple. However, it is
facing increasing pressure from rivals.
The Chinese market, which also
plays host to big players such as
Samsung and Lenovo, has become
increasingly competitive thanks to the
rapid rise of companies such as Oppo
and Vivo.
Huawei, which has more than
180,000 employees, has taken steps in
recent years to counter the threat of
corruption.
New rules on tenancies to drive out rogue landlords
Hotel chain founded in Hoxton set for world tour
The owner of a trendy East London
hotel once described as ?a Holiday
Inn on steroids? is to open three
properties in America next year. The
Hoxton, which also has hotels in
Holborn, Amsterdam, above, and
Paris, will this summer open in
Williamsburg, New York, and
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Portland, Oregon, followed by Los
Angeles. Further Hoxtons to come
include one in Chicago and two more
in London, in Southwark and
Shepherd?s Bush. The brand is owned
by Ennismore, founded in 2010 by the
Indian-born entrepreneur Sharan
Pasricha, which also owns Gleneagles.
DFS buys
Multiyork
assets in
�2m deal
Deirdre Hipwell
Retail Editor
DFS has acquired the leases of eight stores and some
other assets from the failed
Multiyork Furniture company in a �2 million deal
with the administrators.
The furniture retailer,
which also owns the Dwell
and
Sofa
Workshop
brands, said that six of the
former Multiyork stores
now under its control
would be converted into
Sofa Workshop outlets and
the other two would trade
under the DFS brand.
Multiyork collapsed into
administration in November, putting the jobs of 547
employees at the 50-store
chain at risk. The retailer
had struggled in a tough
market where consumer
spending on ?big ticket?
items has been volatile.
Multiyork will continue
to trade in administration
until February 18, under a
licence from DFS, at which
point trading under the
Multiyork brand will cease.
The staff working at the
eight stores have been
offered roles within DFS as
part of the retail group?s
deal with Duff & Phelps,
the administrator.
Other assets within the
deal include the intellectual property rights of Multiyork, including the brand?s
trademark, product designs, domain names and
marketing databases.
Gill Stewart, chief executive of the Sofa Workshop, said that the deal
would help expand its store
network and accelerate the
chain?s expansion plans.
All landlords with five or more
tenants will require a licence, under
laws being introduced by the
government to cut down on rogue
landlords. Until now, only landlords
with five or more tenants in homes
above three storeys required a licence.
This is being changed to include flats
and one- and two-storey properties.
The government will also insist on
new minimum space requirements for
homes that are let out. Rooms used
for sleeping must be no smaller than
6.51 square metres, while rooms slept
in by two adults will have to be no
smaller than 10.22 square metres. The
move, affecting about 160,000 houses,
will mean councils can take action to
crack down on the ?unscrupulous
landlords who profit from providing
overcrowded, squalid and sometimes
dangerous homes,? according to Alok
Sharma, the housing and planning
minister. From April next year,
anyone convicted of certain criminal
offences, such as burglary and
stalking, will be barred from renting
out properties. The database was first
launched in the Housing and
Planning Act of 2016.
A year of recipes
from Nadiya Hussain
The Bake Off star picks her favourites
in a special food pullout.
Pick up your copy of The Times this Saturday.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
49
1G M
Business
TRISTAN FEWINGS/GETTY IMAGES; MICHAEL COLE/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES
The Goodwood Festival
and Festival of Speed help
bring in �0 million a year
other estate businesses,
such as farming and
forestry.
A record 158,000
attended the Festival of
Speed in 2003; indeed,
the event was so busy
that the organisers had
to introduce an advance
tickets only policy with
crowds limited to
100,000 per day.
The duke said: ?There
is a limit to the amount
we can stretch ourselves.
We already do three big
motorsports [events] and
20 days of horseracing
per year . . . There is no
point in destroying the
whole point of the
place.?
He said the family
used the revenues from
events to help subsidise
the estate, which claims
that it contributes
�0 million to the
economy each year.
?We have a big
overhead. There?s a big
monster there we need
to keep feeding.
?We are very lucky to
have all these sports that
are very authentic,? he
said, adding that the
Goodwood Festival of
Speed had a huge
international following
online, which would
help drive expansion
into new territories.
He added: ?We have
had a very successful
switch of the
motorsports into a new
digital platform. We are
now getting 100 million
views per year which
puts us in the top five
motorsports sites in the
world.?
Duke set to take Goodwood
brand on the road to Qatar
F
or nearly 75 years
it has been a
household name
in British
motorsport (Robin
Pagnamenta writes).
Now the aristocratic
family behind the
Goodwood Estate plans
to take the brand
outside the UK.
Charles GordonLennox, 11th Duke of
Richmond, below, told
The Times that the
family, which owns the
12,000-acre Goodwood
Estate in West Sussex, is
in talks about taking its
motorsports events ?
including the
Goodwood Festival of
Speed ? to an
additional venue in
the Middle East.
Qatar is the
most likely
candidate
because the
estate
already has
close ties with the
wealthy Gulf state,
which sponsors its
summer horseracing
festival, Glorious
Goodwood, or the Qatar
Goodwood Festival.
?There is a real
opportunity to take the
brand beyond the
estate,? he said. ?We are
trying to create a longterm sustainable
business with a focus on
big events.?
Goodwood House has
been the home of the
Dukes of Richmond
since the late 1600s.
Horseracing was
introduced by the
third Duke in 1802,
and the event is a
highlight for
racegoers across the
world. The
racecourse
signed a tenyear partnership
deal with Qatar
in 2014.
Most of the estate?s
income comes from
motorsport ticket sales,
track days at the circuit
and deals with sponsors
such as Mastercard,
which supports the
Goodwood Festival of
Speed. The estate also
operates a hotel,
restaurant, golf courses,
farms and other
businesses.
Turnover at
Goodwood Estates is
forecast to exceed
�0 million this year for
the first time, up 9 per
cent from � million in
2016 while pre-tax
profits are expected to
rise 20 per cent to about
�4 million. With more
than one million visitors
every year, the duke said
the estate was close to
capacity in the number
of events that it could
host without having a
negative impact on the
local community and
Shell and Barclays ?lose? �n in assets
Harry Wilson City Editor
Two of Britain?s largest companies have
warned that they will have to take
nearly �billion in combined charges
after the US government pushed
through a radical overhaul that slashed
tax rates for companies doing business
in America.
Barclays is facing a larger full-year
loss than expected because it told
investors that the tax changes would
initially cost it about �billion.
At the same time, Royal Dutch Shell
said in a statement to the stock market
that the tax cut would lead it to take a
hit to its earnings of between $2 billion
and $2.5 billion.
President Trump made a series of
promises while he was on the campaign
trail to reform the tax system and
reduce the corporate tax rate in a move
designed to spur increased investment
in the country and fuel higher economic growth.
The president finally managed to
deliver on his promise this month with
the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that he
signed into law on December 22 and,
effective in January, the headline US
corporation tax will drop from 35 per
cent to 21 per cent.
The charges taken by Barclays and
Shell relate to their so-called deferred
tax assets. These assets can comprise
everything from overpaid tax to past
losses and companies are allowed to
hold them in reserve to write off against
future tax payments.
In the case of big banks, deferred tax
assets can account for a significant part
of their capital largely as a result of
losses that they sustained during the
global financial crisis. Moody?s, the
credit rating agency, estimates that
banks have more than $400 billion of
tax assets on their books.
Because of the cut in US corporation
tax, which marks the biggest overhaul
$400bn
Tax assets held on banks? books
Moodys
of the American tax system in three
decades, the value of these assets will be
reduced as businesses make provisions
for lower taxes in future; accounting
rules mean they must be revalued in the
light of the new regime. Barclays said
that its charge would be a one-off and
that overall it expected the tax cut to
?positively impact? its finances, though
it cautioned that complex provisions in
the incoming rules meant it could not
yet be sure what the ultimate result
would be.
?Due to the uncertain practical and
technical application of many of these
provisions, it is currently not possible to
reliably estimate whether Beat [the
base erosion and anti-abuse tax] will
apply and if so, how it would impact
Barclays,? the bank said.
The Beat rules are meant to stop
international companies from abusing
the US tax code.
Barclays had already reported a loss
of more than �0 million for the first
nine months of the year and the latest
charge all but guarantees that the bank
will report an even bigger loss for the
full year.
Royal Dutch Shell said it would account for the lower value of its deferred
tax assets in its fourth quarter financial
figures as a ?non-cash adjustment?,
meaning it should have no bearing on
the company?s final dividend to shareholders.
Like Barclays, Shell said it expected
the changes to in time have a ?favourable? impact on its earnings.
Royal Dutch Shell?s A shares ticked
11p higher to �.63, while shares in
Barclays rose 絧 to 202絧.
Barclays and Shell are unlikely to be
the last companies reporting hits to
their balance sheets from the lower US
tax rate and others can be expected to
follow as they offer their own estimates
on the likely costs to their finances.
iPhone users to sue Apple for ?covering up? battery defect
Alexandra Frean
Apple is facing at least nine lawsuits
from consumers less than a week after
admitting that it deliberately slows
down certain models of the iPhone
without warning to compensate for
poor performance of ageing batteries.
The lawsuits, seeking unspecified
damages, claim that Apple defrauded
iPhone users by the action, which has
left many frustrated as they sought to
resolve the issue themselves.
The cases follow an acknowledgment from Apple last week for the first
time that updates to its operating
system released since last year included
a feature ?to smooth out? power supply
from batteries that are cold, old or low
on charge.
Phones without the adjustment
risked shutting shut down abruptly
because of a precaution built into them
to protect components, Apple said. The
change affected the iPhone 6 and
6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus and SE as well as
the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
Apple?s admission followed a report
this month from Primate Labs, whose
iPhone performance app confirmed
what many users had suspected but
been unable to explain, namely that
processors in older iPhones were
slowing down and performance was
suffering.
One of the lawsuits, filed in San Fran-
cisco, complained that, ?rather than
curing the battery defect by providing a
free battery replacement . . . Apple
sought to mask the battery defect?.
The suits are seeking class-action
status to represent potentially millions
of iPhone owners across the US, according to Reuters. Apple was not
available for comment last night.
550
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
1G M
Business Unit Trusts
The Times unit trust information service
Sell
Buy
+/-
Yld
%
For Abbey National see Santander
For Allchurches see Ecclesiastical
ALLIANZ GLOBAL INVESTORS
Inv Serv: 020 7065 1400 Helpline: 0800 317 573
Gilt Yield A ?@
Strategic Bond Fund ?@
UK Corp Bond C ?@
UK Eqty C ?@
UK Eqty Inc A ?@
UK Gwth A ?@
UK Index A Inc ?@
UK Mid Cap A ?@
179.15
150.32
104.79
6317.26
303.02
5827.16
1423.81
5180.17
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
+0.39
-0.05
-0.78
-14.91
+0.28
+6.44
-5.83
+21.92
1.25
0.54
3.87
3.28
4.15
1.17
3.01
0.13
1718.48
112.58
107.26
384.02
32.77
281.34
137.12
102.86
108.68
85.83
449.79
242.87
77.39
89.80
101.84
61.58
101.66
61.29
591.43
1802.59
630.61
-0.15
+0.34
+0.32
-0.06
+0.42
-0.12
+0.08
+0.06
-0.20
+0.01
-0.12
-0.06
+0.04
+0.50
+0.06
+0.03
+0.06
+0.04
+0.40
+1.76
-0.26
1.76
0.76
0.76
0.84
0.43
0.82
3.44
3.54
?
5.43
3.74
3.85
4.27
?
3.35
3.43
3.34
3.40
1.62
0.94
1.47
AXA FRAMLINGTON UNIT MGMT LTD
Dling: 0845 602 1952 Priv Clients: 0845 777 5511
Equity Inc ?@
572.40
Gilt Acc @
201.30
Gilt Inc @
74.35
Health Acc ?@
1830.00
Jap Smlr Co Ac @
62.56
Managed Inc ?@
143.30
Monthly Inc Inc ?@
268.90
UK Growth Inc ?@
212.80
UK Select Opps Inc ?@ 1937.00
UK Sml Cos Inc ?@
292.20
?
211.80
78.24
?
66.09
?
?
?
?
?
-2.70
+0.10
-0.39
-4.00
-0.19
+0.10
+0.10
-0.30
-2.00
+0.50
4.43
1.08
1.09
?
0.30
4.95
4.33
1.50
0.21
0.04
AXA FUND MANAGERS LTD
Admin & Enq 0117 989 0808
AXA Trusts
Gen Acc ?@
Gen Inc ?@
2101.00
1079.00
?
?
+6.00
-2.00
2.64
2.70
UK/Global Investment Companies
Euro Acc A ?@
Extra Inc Inc B ?@
Global Gwth Acc R ?@
Japan Acc A ?@
Pac Gwth Acc A ?@
256.10
91.44
216.00
168.00
467.00
?
?
?
?
?
150.60
564.50
580.10
233.70
1.62
1.33
0.94
1.19
1.85
152.90
?
588.90
237.30
+0.10
-1.40
-0.40
+0.20
?
1.19
1.50
4.42
CLOSE FUND MANAGEMENT LTD
0870 606 6402
Beacon Inv ?
84.88
?
+0.35
0.01
Dealing: 020 7426 6232
Winchester ?
2769.68
?
+21.32
1.37
EDENTREE INV MGMT LTD
0800 358 3010
Amity European A ?
Amity International A ?
Amity Sterling Bond A ?
Amity UK A Inc ?
Higher Income A ?
UK Equity Growth A ?
279.30
278.30
109.20
241.10
140.40
288.50
?
?
?
?
?
?
-0.30
+0.10
+0.10
-0.10
+0.10
+0.50
1.46
1.18
4.59
1.34
4.22
1.22
Corporate Bond ?@
Ethical ?@
European ?@
Far Eastern ?
Fund of Inv Tst ?@
Intl Gwth ?
Japanese ?
North Amer ?
Smaller Cos ?@
Special Sits ?@
UK Equity Inc ?@
UK FTSE 100 IT ?@
UK FTSE All-S IT ?@
UK Growth ?@
Yld
%
2273.00
28.09
3912.00
1941.00
149.50
377.60
51.15
327.60
80.53
37.33
108.63
4034.00
69.75
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
327.60
?
?
?
?
72.18
+4.00
+0.03
-10.00
-1.00
+0.20
+0.80
+0.02
-0.10
+0.09
+0.07
+0.07
+1.00
+0.53
1.15
3.00
0.05
?
0.08
?
3.94
0.21
2.42
2.93
2.35
0.89
0.44
?
?
?
?
?
?
15.29
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
35.93
82.16
88.81
105.60
115.90
88.37
63.01
88.49
114.40
49.03
87.59
60.70
69.43
80.69
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
+0.05
+0.21
-0.06
+0.10
+0.70
-0.04
-0.14
-0.28
?
+0.23
+0.01
+0.34
+0.41
+0.44
Amer Ind Acc ?@
Amer Ind Inc ?@
Euro Ind Acc ?@
Euro Ind Inc ?@
FTSE 100 Ind Acc ?@
FTSE 100 Ind Inc ?@
FTSE 250 Ind Acc ?@
FTSE 250 Ind Inc ?@
FTSE All-S Acc ?@
FTSE All-S Inc ?@
Jap Ind Acc ?@
Jap Ind Inc ?@
Pac Ind Acc ?@
Pac Ind Inc ?@
514.50
441.40
880.10
633.20
229.30
124.10
272.50
187.60
589.70
354.80
124.50
106.30
388.10
275.90
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
-1.90
-1.60
-0.50
-0.40
+0.10
+0.10
+0.60
+0.40
+0.40
+0.20
?
?
+0.50
+0.30
Balanced Acc ?@
217.90
Balanced Inc ?@
145.90
Corp Bd Acc ?@
281.50
Corp Bd Inc ?@
125.10
Gilt & Fd Int Acc ?@
463.70
Gilt & Fd Int Inc ?@
72.92
Income Acc ?@
666.70
Income Inc ?@
338.40
Monthly Inc Acc ?@
303.90
Monthly Inc Inc ?@
151.40
UK Grth & Inc Ret B Acc ?@137.70
UK Grth & Inc Ret B Inc ?@74.23
UK Gth & Inc Acc ?@
137.70
UK Gth & Inc Inc ?@
74.23
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
-0.20
-0.10
+0.40
+0.30
+1.00
+0.16
-1.10
-0.60
-0.20
-0.10
-0.20
-0.11
-0.20
-0.11
Buy
+/-
Yld
%
Cautious Managed A Acc ?@426.16
Cautious Managed A Inc ?@281.17
Diversified Growth A Acc ?@133.85
Diversified Growth A Inc ?@146.41
Diversified Income A Acc ?@306.47
Diversified Income A Inc ?@80.49
Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc ?@119.78
Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Acc Gross ?@125.82
Emerging Mkts Blended Debt A Inc ?@92.92
Emerging Mkts Equity A Acc ?@150.90
Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Acc ?@185.65
Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt A Inc ?@98.91
Emrg Mkts Local Curr Debt Gross I Acc ?@220.49
Enhanced Natural Resources A Acc ?@124.43
Global Bond A Acc ?@
139.30
Global Bond A Inc ?@
109.33
Global Bond I Gross Inc ?@1167.00
Global Dynamic A Acc ?@ 154.68
Global Energy A Acc ?@ 198.61
Global Equity A Acc ?@ 158.44
Global Franchise A Acc ?@198.65
Global Free Enterprise A Acc ?@928.83
Global Gold A Acc ?@
128.90
Global Special Situations A Acc ?@280.05
Global Special Situations A Inc ?@221.12
Managed Growth A Acc ?@236.96
Monthly High Income A Acc ?@223.01
Monthly High Income A Inc ?@70.14
Multi-Asset Protector A Acc ?@175.78
Strategic Bond A Acc ?@ 244.54
Strategic Bond A Inc ?@ 119.47
Target Return A Acc ?@ 105.56
Target Return A Inc ?@ 92.89
UK Alpha A Acc ?@
2478.83
UK Blue Chip A Acc ?@ 770.11
UK Smaller Companies A Acc ?@4687.11
UK Smaller Companies A Inc ?@4249.42
UK Special Situations A Acc ?@1217.68
UK Special Situations A Inc ?@467.77
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
+1.42
+0.94
+0.18
+0.20
+0.31
+0.08
+0.08
+0.20
+0.07
-0.62
+0.52
+0.28
-0.05
+0.79
+4.03
+3.00
+29.78
-0.27
+1.45
-0.43
-0.92
-3.22
+3.24
+0.49
+0.38
+0.65
+0.11
+0.03
+0.22
+0.19
+0.09
+0.11
+0.10
-6.13
+3.15
+17.85
+16.18
+2.99
+1.15
?
?
0.83
0.88
2.86
4.25
4.62
4.21
6.48
0.36
5.18
7.10
5.42
0.60
0.83
0.82
1.26
0.27
1.32
0.42
1.68
0.23
?
?
?
0.08
5.25
6.57
0.15
1.94
3.31
0.68
0.67
1.59
1.67
0.93
0.94
1.50
1.52
For ISIS Asset Mgmt see F&C Fd Mgmt Ltd (OEICS)
New Europe A ?@
Portfolio ?@
Stg Corp Bd A Acc ?@
Stg Corp Bd A Inc ?@
UK Act 350 A Acc ?@
UK Dynamic Acc ?@
UK Dynamic Inc ?@
UK Equity A Acc ?@
UK Equity A Inc ?@
UK Eqy & Bd Inc Acc ?@
UK Eqy & Bd Inc Inc ?@
UK Higher Inc A Acc ?@
UK Higher Inc A Inc ?@
UK Sm Cos A Acc ?@
UK Str Eq Inc A Acc ?@
UK Str Eq Inc A Inc ?@
US A Acc ?@
US Sm Cos A Acc ?@
Sell
Buy
+/-
Yld
%
209.90
272.00
94.10
56.71
199.00
202.80
160.80
401.90
46.44
167.10
90.29
1099.00
582.30
470.70
191.90
115.00
1047.00
620.40
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
+0.50
+0.10
+0.17
+0.10
-2.20
+0.20
+0.10
+0.60
+0.07
-0.20
-0.48
+1.00
+0.40
+0.80
+0.20
+0.10
?
+2.60
1.84
0.62
1.41
1.90
?
1.35
1.36
3.45
3.49
2.41
3.50
4.22
4.36
0.62
2.49
3.72
?
?
JUPITER UT MGRS LTD
020 7581 3020
Absolute Return @
54.24
Distribution and Growth @131.69
Emg Euro Opps @
215.75
Euro Special Sits @
424.22
European @
2123.54
Financial Opps @
603.19
Income Trust @
576.04
Merlin Bal (Acc) @
184.04
Merlin Gwth (Acc) @
410.42
Merlin Inc (Acc) @
299.19
Merlin Wwide (Inc) @
296.74
UK Growth @
328.46
UK Special Sits (Inc) @ 192.43
57.29
139.60
228.32
447.93
2236.59
637.10
608.48
194.36
432.67
316.76
312.32
348.22
203.84
+0.08
-0.15
+1.13
-0.07
+4.14
-3.70
-0.31
-0.10
+0.06
+0.18
-0.06
-1.33
+0.15
?
4.02
1.49
0.59
?
0.29
3.67
1.72
?
2.91
?
1.24
1.25
LEGAL & GENERAL (UT MGRS) LTD
Enquiries: 0870 050 0955 Dealing: 0870 050 0956
Equity Acc @
Equity Dist @
Euro Ind Acc @
Euro Ind Inc @
Fixed Int Acc @
2616.00
893.80
401.50
289.10
140.10
2639.00
902.00
401.50
289.10
140.80
-8.00
-2.70
+0.30
+0.20
+0.30
2.12
2.15
1.82
1.86
2.71
1.33
1.34
2.66
2.70
2.26
2.27
3.89
4.01
3.72
3.65
3.54
3.65
3.54
3.65
Sell
American Index Retail Acc ?@514.50
American Index Retail Inc ?@441.40
Asian Gth Acc ?@
155.70
Asian Gth Inc ?@
138.90
Chinese Eq Acc ?@
573.20
Chinese Eq Inc ?@
486.80
Euro Gth Acc ?@
865.40
Euro Gth Inc ?@
741.80
+0.08
-0.10
-3.00
+0.03
+0.10
-0.60
+0.01
+0.02
?
?
-1.60
+0.10
?
+4.00
?
?
+1.70
2.89
?
0.83
2.99
3.31
?
4.93
3.56
3.18
3.37
?
0.93
0.67
1.11
3.25
3.34
0.33
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
-1.90
-1.60
-0.20
-0.20
-3.50
-3.00
-1.30
-1.20
1.41
1.43
0.40
0.46
0.20
0.21
1.38
1.42
322.55
262.17
393.13
99.69
403.88
475.71
331.53
83.98
275.04
49.06
130.89
71.96
95.54
498.71
756.24
628.94
340.42
276.69
414.92
?
426.26
502.07
349.90
88.64
290.28
51.78
138.15
76.96
100.84
526.34
798.14
663.79
-3.34
-0.93
-1.40
-0.89
-3.57
-4.21
-3.09
-0.29
-0.92
-0.03
-0.06
+0.17
-0.11
-2.81
+1.64
+1.36
?
1.52
1.49
4.77
2.18
2.24
0.12
4.43
4.32
0.94
0.66
1.30
0.58
1.34
0.15
0.21
INSIGHT INVESTMENT FDS MANAGEMENT LTD
Client Servs: 0800 124 314
Insight Investment Global Investment Funds
Mthly Inc Bd Inc ?@
Mthly Inc Bd N Inc ?@
48.44
91.99
?
?
+0.10
+0.19
Insigt Investment Portfolio Fund
Insight Investment Multi-Manager Funds (0800)
96.05
93.79
?
?
-0.32
-0.36
UK Str Inc N/Trl ?@
555.93
?
+0.53
3.15
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
+0.78
+0.18
-0.15
-1.09
-1.32
+0.03
+0.04
+0.33
+0.86
+2.07
+0.04
1.95
2.88
3.38
3.63
3.48
0.02
4.57
1.79
1.93
0.26
?
INVESCO PERPETUAL Funds
Childrens Acc ?@
469.22
Corp Bond Acc ?@
203.10
High Income Inc ?@
462.02
Income & Grth Inc ?@
437.90
Income Inc ?@
1766.92
Money Acc ?@
90.41
Monthly Inc Plus Inc ?@ 111.55
UK Aggressive Inc ?@
207.03
UK Growth Acc ?@
679.95
UK Sml Cos Eqty Acc ?@ 1256.88
UK Sml Cos Gwth ?@
82.54
American A Acc ?@
352.96
Asia ex Japan A Acc ?@ 664.66
Capital Accumulator A Acc ?@239.99
0.01
?
0.26
0.14
0.12
INVESCO FUND MGRS LTD
Dling: 0800 085 8571 Inv Serv: 0800 085 8677
Brkr Serv: 0800 028 2121
INVESCO Funds
Amer Spec Sits ?@
American ?@
Euro Opps ?@
-3.00
-12.00
+0.60
?
4.21
?
?
?
-1.67
-4.31
+0.44
0.12
0.70
1.14
+/-
Yld
%
-0.02
?
?
+0.10
-0.60
-0.40
-0.60
-1.10
+0.30
+0.20
3.10
3.02
3.31
3.40
3.44
3.39
0.61
0.17
MANEK INVESTMENT MGMT LTD
0844 800 9401
Growth Fd Acc @
41.48
43.55
MARKS & SPENCER UNIT TRUST LTD
0808 005 5555
High Income
High Income Acc
UK 100 Comp Acc
UK 100 Cos
UK Select Pflo
UK Selection Port Acc
Worldwide Mgd Acc ?
Wwide Mgd ?
115.90
261.20
381.80
224.00
355.70
644.70
825.50
516.10
115.90
261.20
381.80
224.00
355.70
644.70
?
?
MORGAN STANLEY INVESTMENT MGMT LTD
Enquires: 0800 0961 962
The Morgan Stanley Funds (UK)
Class A Shares
Equity
Eur (Ex UK) Eq A Acc ?@1310.92
Glob Brands A Acc ?@ 8147.87
UK Eq A Acc ?@
1184.53
?
?
?
+4.24
-41.51
-0.02
1.25
1.06
1.66
?
?
?
+3.41
-3.80
?
1.95
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
-0.10
?
-0.10
-0.10
2.94
1.97
5.61
2.98
3.79
3.06
3.14
-1.57
-0.88
-1.58
+0.43
-2.39
-1.35
+6.23
+1.16
-7.28
+0.56
1.37
1.15
0.16
0.56
1.36
1.17
0.24
2.83
?
2.89
Fixed Income
Stg Corp Bd A Acc ?@
UK Ind Lnkd A Acc ?@
UK Long Bd A Acc ?@
Bal Pfolio Inc ?@
Bal Port Gwth Acc ?@
Equity Inc Inc ?@
N&P UK Gwth Inc ?@
Stkmkt 100 Tkr ?@
UK Growth Acc ?@
UK Growth Inc ?@
108.50
205.00
224.60
186.70
219.90
401.20
249.90
SCOTTISH MUTUAL INV MNGRS LTD
0141 248 6100
European Inc
Far Eastern Inc
Intl Growth Inc
Japanese Inc
Mutual European
Mutual Far Eastern
Mutual North Am
Mutual UK Eq
Nth American Inc
UK Equity Inc
1465.88
545.25
597.65
41.85
2240.78
840.93
1983.00
1368.49
1227.65
655.81
1547.10
575.46
630.77
41.85
2364.94
887.53
2092.88
1444.32
1295.67
692.15
203.80
185.00
140.40
229.60
222.90
?
?
?
?
?
0.50
1.02
1.03
0.44
0.46
2498.00
?
+2.00
0.89
326.40
191.90
?
?
-0.60
-0.30
2.99
3.07
+0.70
+0.20
+0.30
-0.10
-0.02
?
?
?
+0.40
+0.20
-0.20
+5.00
1.91
1.94
1.17
5.30
5.45
3.97
4.07
?
3.18
3.23
2.63
1.61
UK and Income Investment Funds
Corp Bond A Acc ?@
316.90
Corp Bond A Inc ?@
129.20
Envir Invtr A Acc ?@
288.00
Hi Inc Bond A Ac ?@
232.00
Hi Inc Bond A Inc ?@
88.92
Hi Res A Acc ?@
364.60
Hi Res A Inc ?@
138.40
Safety Plus A Acc ?@
40.49
Strat Inc A Acc ?@
203.30
Strat Inc A Inc ?@
102.20
UK Gwth A Acc ?@
190.30
UK Sel Gwth A Acc ?@ 1973.00
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
OEIC B Class
Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds
All Stks Credit A Inc ?@ 135.50
Asian Div Inc U Trst Inc @108.97
Cautious Man Fd A Acc ?@267.50
Cautious Man Fd A Inc ?@155.00
China Opp Fund A Acc ?@1465.00
Emg Mkts Opps Fd A Acc ?@214.70
Erpn Grth Fund A Acc ?@ 241.90
Erpn Sel Opps Fd A Acc ?@1674.00
Fix Int Mnthly Inc Fd Acc @29.37
Global Equity Fund Acc @3037.08
Global Equity Income A Inc ?@62.75
Global Tech A Acc ?@ 1653.00
M-Asset Abs Ret A Acc ?@142.20
M-Man Active Fd A Acc ?@226.80
M-Man Inc Grth A Inc ?@ 156.50
M-Man Inc Grth Fd A Acc ?@177.90
Sterling Bond U Trst Acc @223.11
Sterling Bond U Trst Inc @ 66.29
Strategic Bond A Inc ?@ 126.60
UK Abs Ret Fd A Acc ?@ 157.90
UK Alpha Fund A Acc ?@ 152.80
UK Index Fund A Acc ?@ 632.90
UK Irsh Sm Co Fd A Acc ?@662.90
UK Property A Acc @
220.96
UK Property A Inc @
100.17
UK Tracker Fund A Acc ?@284.30
US Growth Fund A Acc ?@988.70
?
114.48
?
?
?
?
?
?
30.64
3167.91
?
?
?
?
?
?
232.74
69.15
?
?
?
?
?
232.58
105.43
?
?
+0.20
-0.48
+0.20
+0.10
-13.00
+1.70
+0.10
?
+0.03
-5.97
-0.14
-17.00
+0.10
+0.40
+0.20
+0.40
+0.35
+0.10
+0.10
-0.20
+0.10
+0.50
+2.10
+0.11
+0.04
+0.10
-6.90
2.38
6.42
3.18
3.24
?
0.58
0.83
0.56
4.73
?
3.24
?
0.43
0.38
2.01
1.98
2.24
2.27
4.12
?
1.85
2.10
?
2.94
3.00
2.13
?
JP MORGAN ASSET MGMT
OEIC
Asia A Acc ?@
211.90
Emerging Mkts ?@
231.00
Eur Dyn (ex-UK) A Acc ?@228.10
Euro Smllr Cos ?@
770.40
Europe A Acc ?@
1483.00
Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Acc ?@ 111.10
Gbl Hi Yld Bd A Inc ?@
37.65
Gl ex-UK Bd A Acc ?@ 263.00
Gl ex-UK Bd A Inc ?@
204.60
Glb Fins A Acc ?@
1077.00
Global A Acc ?@
1372.00
Japan A Acc ?@
457.30
Multi-Man Tst A Acc ?@ 999.10
Multi-Man Tst A Inc ?@ 918.90
Nat Resources ?@
620.30
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
-1.40
-1.10
-0.60
+1.20
-2.00
-0.10
-0.03
+0.10
?
+1.00
-4.00
+3.40
-0.80
-0.80
+7.30
0.22
0.16
0.71
0.04
1.06
5.44
5.64
0.44
0.43
1.03
?
?
0.66
0.67
?
Fixed Int Dist @
Glob Gwth Acc @
Glob Health Acc @
Glob Tech Acc @
Gwth Tst Acc @
High Inc Acc @
Japan Ind Acc @
Pacific Ind Acc @
UK 100 Ind Acc @
UK Active Opps Acc @
UK Index Acc @
UK Index Dist @
US Ind Acc @
Worldwide Acc @
72.56
240.20
66.02
40.69
106.00
128.20
62.03
157.70
185.90
249.90
293.30
167.00
463.80
310.70
72.96
240.20
66.14
40.74
106.50
129.00
62.03
157.70
185.90
252.90
293.30
167.00
463.80
310.70
+0.15
-0.10
+0.04
-0.37
-1.00
?
?
-0.10
+0.10
-0.10
+0.10
+0.10
-1.40
?
2.76
1.17
0.57
0.24
0.17
5.17
0.83
2.34
3.00
?
3.11
3.19
0.85
0.70
M & G SECURITIES
Enq: 0800 390 390 Dealing Line: 0800 328 3196
Authorised Inv Funds
Charifund Inc ?
1633.85
?
+1.03
4.66
-0.46
-0.43
0.20
1.80
+0.29
+0.19
+0.03
+0.55
+0.01
?
-2.21
4.38
1.25
4.94
?
3.40
1.64
2.04
+0.07
+0.14
+1.01
+0.65
3.80
4.64
1.93
2.22
Sterling Class A Investment Funds 1
Euro Smlr Cos Acc ?@
Euro Smlr Cos Inc ?@
443.50
414.40
?
?
Sterling Class A Investment Funds 2
Extra Income Inc ?@
802.13
Gilt & Fxd Int Inc ?@
98.17
Gl Hi Yd Bd Inc ?@
51.58
Index Linked Bd Inc ?@ 141.97
Index Trckr Inc ?@
77.43
Short Dated Corp Bd Inc ?@25.94
UK Select A Inc ?@
3029.34
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
Sterling Class A Investment Funds 3
Corp Bd A Inc ?@
Dividend Inc ?@
Recovery A Inc ?@
Sml Cos Inc ?@
41.58
64.63
147.13
376.97
?
?
?
?
Sterling Class A Investment Funds 4
Episode Allocation A Inc ?@149.37
?
-0.09
2.05
UK Trkr B Acc ?@
UK Trkr B Inc ?@
353.50
191.10
?
?
-0.60
-0.30
3.47
3.55
+0.70
+0.20
-0.10
+5.00
2.10
2.13
2.48
1.82
-0.10
+5.00
2.99
2.04
UK and Income Investment Funds
Corp Bond B Acc ?@
326.20
Corp Bond B Inc ?@
129.10
UK Gwth B Acc ?@
203.90
UK Sel Gwth B Acc ?@ 2053.00
?
?
?
?
UK Gth C Inc ?@
145.10
UK Sel Gwth C Acc ?@ 2131.00
?
?
STANDARD LIFE INVESTMENTS
0845 279 3003
Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Shares
96.48
57.87
102.90
147.40
165.70
63.73
202.40
132.00
174.60
133.90
132.40
49.19
106.00
272.40
88.74
54.46
349.40
228.60
261.30
89.84
202.00
249.40
228.70
710.60
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
+0.11
+0.06
+0.10
-0.50
+0.40
+0.14
-0.70
-0.10
-0.10
+0.10
+0.10
+0.04
+0.10
-0.50
+0.06
+0.03
-0.40
+0.10
-0.20
-0.08
+1.00
+1.50
+1.40
+2.90
1.41
1.30
1.82
?
3.07
2.80
1.48
1.17
1.15
0.01
3.62
3.41
0.04
1.67
1.45
1.24
2.29
2.80
3.91
4.03
1.46
0.39
0.40
0.50
?
?
?
+0.08
+0.07
+0.02
1.68
1.70
2.04
SVS BROWN SHIPLEY FUNDS
Enquiries: 0141 222 1151
Balanced A Acc ?@
Balanced A Inc ?@
Cautious A Acc ?@
Yld
%
104.88
271.68
257.32
287.25
228.04
230.92
98.32
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
+0.02
+0.17
+0.15
+0.12
+0.15
+0.20
+0.09
2.06
1.03
1.03
1.09
2.82
2.68
2.73
UK Oseas Earns ?@
127.95
?
-0.16
1.96
112.90
151.80
79.36
?
?
?
?
?
-0.25
1.31
0.88
3.91
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
+0.09
+0.04
+0.10
+0.10
-0.14
-0.18
+0.03
-0.15
-0.08
-0.13
-0.19
-0.05
+1.00
1.05
3.55
3.05
2.68
4.04
3.49
4.71
1.70
3.85
4.41
1.77
1.67
0.15
717.00
219.40
+1.20
+1.00
1.50
?
Managed Funds
Def Eqty & Bd Acc ?@
Eqty & Bd Acc ?@
Mgd Income ?@
122.06
116.11
112.17
Stg Bd Ret Inc ?@
Strat Bd Ret ?@
UK Corp Bond ?@
UK Corp Ret ?@
UK Eqty Inc Ret ?@
UK Gwth & Inc Ret ?@
UK Hi Yld Bd 1 ?@
UK Inst Acc ?@
UK Mnthly Extra Inc ?@
UK Mnthly Inc Ret ?@
UK Retail ?@
UK Sel Retail ?@
UK Smaller Cos ?@
57.33
47.27
62.59
62.48
96.02
93.31
43.29
163.23
81.21
76.58
142.30
133.79
359.28
For Resolution see Ignis
TU FUND MANAGERS LIMITED
British
European
681.20
210.70
* Yield expressed as CAR (Compound Annual Return);
? Ex dividend; ?Middle price; . . . No significant data. #
Periodic charge deducted from capital; @ Exit charge
British funds
Stock
Price
Int Yld Grs rd
(�) +/?
% yld
110.25
375.17
129.11
375.56
120.33
123.71
141.49
130.56
380.69
160.84
155.43
279.09
150.12
179.24
175.22
185.39
171.11
177.31
209.86
169.50
209.26
206.26
279.34
218.70
225.36
263.05
264.78
281.36
105.18
364.82
120.70
363.27
113.65
116.42
131.92
121.38
360.17
147.76
141.90
259.90
134.83
161.03
155.61
162.56
148.24
151.89
179.64
164.20
176.95
171.51
231.25
176.93
181.37
208.77
204.60
214.78
Tr IL 0V% 19
105.26
Tr IL 2K% 20
365.18
Tr IL 1Y% 2022 * 121.11
Tr IL 2K% 24
365.90
Tr IL 0V% 24
114.36
Tr IL 0V% 26
118.17
Tr IL 1N% 2027 * 134.26
Tr IL 0V% 29
124.31
Tr IL 4V% 30
369.11
Tr IL 1N% 2032 * 152.07
Tr IL 0O% 34
146.81
Tr IL 2% 35
271.83
Tr IL 0V% 36
141.30
Tr IL 1V% 2037 * 167.75
Tr IL 0X% 40
163.48
Tr IL 0X% 42 * 172.46
Tr IL 0V% 44
158.76
Tr IL 0V% 46
163.26
Tr IL 0O% 2047 * 192.28
Tr IL 0V% 48
169.50
Tr IL 0K% 50 * 190.86
Tr IL 0N% 52
186.65
Tr IL 1N% 2055 * 251.19
Tr IL 0V% 56
194.64
Tr IL 0V% 58 * 199.85
Tr IL 0W% 62
231.85
Tr IL 0V% 65
230.10
Tr IL 0V% 68
242.56
+ .04
+ .14
+ .22
+1.03
+ .33
+ .55
+ .70
+ .75
+2.06
+1.01
+1.08
+1.97
+1.23
+1.43
+1.51
+1.79
+1.81
+2.00
+2.32
+2.17
+2.50
+2.61
+3.49
+3.03
+3.20
+3.92
+4.25
+4.77
?
1.75
1.59
1.48
?
?
1.02
?
1.75
0.82
?
0.90
?
0.71
?
0.36
?
?
0.40
?
?
?
0.55
?
?
?
?
?
?2.56
?2.40
?2.18
?2.00
?2.03
?1.90
?1.88
?1.82
?1.79
?1.78
?1.73
?1.71
?1.72
?1.72
?1.71
?1.70
?1.65
?1.63
?1.63
?1.62
?1.63
?1.63
?1.62
?1.61
?1.62
?1.64
?1.65
?1.67
+1.07
+1.14
+ .99
+1.30
+1.29
+1.36
+1.49
+1.38
+1.46
+1.69
+1.26
+1.88
+1.86
+2.11
+1.53
+2.26
+2.02
+2.52
3.16
3.02
?
3.10
2.92
?
2.90
?
?
2.73
?
2.63
?
2.45
?
?
?
?
1.60
1.65
1.73
1.71
1.73
1.75
1.77
1.79
1.79
1.78
1.76
1.73
1.68
1.64
1.63
1.61
1.58
1.58
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
.13
.20
.25
.38
.48
.49
.55
.61
.72
.86
.86
.93
?
?
?
?
3.90
?
?
?
3.30
4.03
3.40
3.13
0.55
0.70
0.81
0.90
0.92
0.98
1.07
1.20
1.17
1.23
1.40
1.50
+
?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
.01
.01
.04
.02
.04
.08
.06
.08
.11
.12
.18
.19
.24
?
4.95
?
4.05
3.55
?
4.34
?
?
6.38
3.51
?
?
0.31
0.20
0.41
0.37
0.38
0.46
0.40
0.45
0.52
0.55
0.59
0.70
0.85
Longs (Over 15 years)
145.88
144.09
102.52
157.27
148.88
150.88
159.30
133.83
140.40
160.53
97.05
166.78
159.09
179.39
107.38
179.15
135.86
173.27
137.39
135.06
94.03
147.02
138.53
140.01
147.69
122.79
128.60
147.28
87.23
152.46
144.06
162.01
94.40
160.08
117.79
150.82
Tr 4K% 34
Tr 4N% 36
Tr 1{ }% 37
Tr 4O% 38
Tr 4N% 39
Tr 4N% 40
Tr 4K% 42
Tr 3N% 44
Tr 3K% 45
Tr 4N% 46
Tr 1K% 47
Tr 4N% 49
Tr 3O% 52
Tr 4N% 55
Tr 1O% 57
Tr 4% 60
Tr 2K% 65
Tr 3K% 68
142.33
140.71
100.28
153.38
145.31
147.13
154.92
130.22
136.59
155.76
94.07
161.76
153.97
173.45
103.51
173.01
130.66
166.87
Mediums (5-15 years)
OEIC C Class
UK and Income Investment Funds
AAA Inc CAT Acc ?@
AAA Inc CAT Inc ?@
AAA Income Acc ?@
Amer Eq Gth Acc ?@
Corp Bond Acc ?@
Corp Bond Inc ?@
Euro Eq Gth Acc ?@
Glb Advtg CAT Acc ?@
Glob Advtg Acc ?@
Glob Eq Uncstrd Acc ?@
Higher Inc Acc ?@
Higher Inc Inc ?@
Japan Eq Gth Acc ?@
Managed Acc ?@
Select Inc Acc ?@
Select Inc Inc ?@
UK Eq Gth Acc ?@
UK Eq Hi Alpha ?@
UK Eq Hi Inc Acc ?@
UK Eq Hi Inc Inc ?@
UK Ethical Acc ?@
UK Opps Acc ?@
UK Opps Inc ?@
UK Smlr Cos Acc ?@
+/-
Index-linked
+0.20
+0.10
+0.10
+0.30
+0.20
Tracker and Specialist Investment Funds
JANUS HENDERSON INVESTORS
Investors Serv: 0800 832 832 Dlng: 0845 946 4646
Buy
THREADNEEDLE INVESTMENTS
Client Serv: 0800 0683000
Intermediary Serv: 0800 0684000
Institutional Shares (Class 2) (163500,000 min)
12 month
High
Low
Overseas Growth Investment Funds
UK Trkr A Acc ?@
UK Trkr A Inc ?@
Cautious A Inc ?@
Dynamic A Acc ?@
Dynamic A Inc ?@
Growth A Acc ?@
Income A Acc ?@
Sterling Bond Acc ?@
Sterling Bond Inc ?@
Sell
Retail Shares (Class 1)
2479.38
1350.60
1288.90
SANTANDER UNIT TST MGRS
08457 413002
Bal Port A Acc ?@
Caut Port A Acc ?@
Caut Port A Inc ?@
Opps Port A Acc ?@
Prog Port A Acc ?@
IGNIS ASSET MGMT
Dlg: 0141 222 8282
American Gth Inc @
Balanced Growth @
Balanced Growth Acc @
Corporate Bond ?@
European Growth @
European Growth Acc @
Glob Gwth @
Higher Yield @
Higher Yield Acc @
Japan @
Managed @
Managed Trust @
Mngd Pfolio Inc @
Pacific Grth @
Smaller Comp @
Smaller Cos @
Buy
SCOTTISH WIDOWS UNIT TRUST MGRS
0845 300 2244
Authorised Inv Funds (OEICs)
OEIC A Class
Managed Investment Funds
HSBC Specialist Investment Funds (OEIC)
INVESTEC FUND MGRS
Broker Support and Dealing: 020 7597 1900
OEIC Series i,ii,iii, & iv
?
?
?
1.41
1.43
2.29
2.34
3.45
3.49
2.35
2.41
3.35
3.47
1.42
1.44
2.40
2.46
Sell
HSBC Investment Funds (OEIC) - Retail Share Class
FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL
Private Clnts 0800 414161 Broker Dlgs 0800 414181
1569.00
3768.00
512.60
3.10
0.69
1.82
1.91
0.30
1.39
1.26
1.01
0.92
1.43
4.34
2.75
2.61
2.77
HSBC GLOBAL ASSET MGMT (UK) LTD
Enq: 0845 745 6123 Dlg: 0845 745 6126 Mon-Fri 8-6
HSBC Index Tracker Investment Funds (OEIC)
Well Bldr Bal Acc ?@
Well Bldr Gwth Acc ?@
F & C FUND MANAGEMENT LTD (OEICS)
Enqs: 0870 601 6183 Dealing: 0870 601 6083
Share Class 1 - Retail
Corporate Bd ?@
59.00
Emerging Mkts ?@
125.40
Euro Gwth & Inc 1 ?@ 1061.00
Extra Inc Bond ?@
49.51
FTSE All-Shr Track ?@ 427.80
Global Gwth SC1 ?@
205.00
High Inc Trst @
14.54
Max Inc Bond ?@
49.46
Multi Man Caut ?@
70.41
Multi Man Distr ?@
60.44
North Amer ?@
524.40
Pacific Gwth ?@
450.60
Strategic Bd ?@
196.10
UK Equity ?@
3276.00
UK Gwth & Inc Acc 1 ?@ 658.50
UK Gwth & Inc Dist ?@ 234.70
UK Smaller Cos ?@
988.10
+/-
Eur Sel Gth A Acc ?@
-0.30
+0.16
-0.70
-0.10
-0.90
CIS UNIT MANAGERS LTD
08457 46 46 46
European Gwth @
Sus Leaders ?@
UK Growth @
UK Income @
Buy
HALIFAX INVESTMENT FUND MGRS LTD
01296 386 386
Authorised Inv Funds
Share Class `C
ARTEMIS FUND MGRS LTD
0800 092 2051
Authorised Inv Funds
Capital R Acc @
1628.17
Euro Opps R Acc @
106.60
Euro Opps R Inc @
101.56
European Growth R Acc @363.88
Global Energy R Acc @
30.93
Global Growth R Acc @ 266.70
Global Income R Acc @ 129.95
Global Income R Inc @
97.49
Global Select R Acc @
103.01
High Income R Inc @
80.72
Income R Acc @
424.17
Income R Inc @
229.04
Monthly Dist R Inc @
73.05
Strategic Assets R Acc @ 84.90
Strategic Bond R M Acc @ 96.07
Strategic Bond R M Inc @ 58.08
Strategic Bond R Q Acc @ 95.89
Strategic Bond R Q Inc @ 57.82
UK Growth R Acc @
559.45
UK Smaller Cos R Acc @ 1679.62
UK Special Sits R Acc @ 594.63
European ?@
Extra Income ?@
Glob Spec Sits ?@
Global Focus ?@
International ?@
Japan ?@
Moneybldr Bal ?@
Moneybldr Glob
Moneybldr Gwth ?@
Moneybldr Inc ?@
Moneybldr UK Ind ?@
Special Sits ?@
Wealthbuilder
Sell
115.39
107.31
110.88
115.27
132.93
110.19
105.54
102.29
133.03
153.92
143.86
139.13
111.46
104.32
107.25
111.00
127.29
105.19
99.90
98.24
126.26
146.44
136.21
131.47
Tr 3O% 21
Tr 1O% 22
Tr 2N% 23
Tr 2O% 24
Tr 5% 25
Tr 2% 25
Tr 1K% 26
Tr 1N% 27
Tr 4N% 27
Tr 6% 28
Tr 4O% 30
Tr 4N% 32
111.66
104.83
107.98
112.01
128.36
107.53
103.48
100.44
128.83
148.70
139.52
135.62
Shorts (under 5 years)
101.87
105.87
104.21
109.80
109.84
106.05
114.50
112.70
104.73
133.42
118.04
100.70
101.30
100.50
100.91
102.01
104.88
105.63
103.74
109.41
108.71
102.67
125.27
113.78
97.83
?
Tr 1N% 18
Tr 5% 18
Tr 1O% 19
Tr 4K% 19
Tr 3O% 19
Tr 2% 20
Tr 4O% 20
Tr 3O% 20
Tr 1K% 21
Tr 8% 21
Tr 4% 22
Tr 0K% 22
Tr 0O% 23
100.54
100.91
102.09
104.90
105.67
103.93
109.47
108.82
102.98
125.39
114.08
99.10
99.47
* maturities as having a 3-month indexation lag and
which trade on a real clean price basis, excluding inflation
adjustment charge.
This is a paid for information service. For
further details on a particular fund, readers
should contact their fund manager.
Data as shown is
for information
purposes only. No offer is made by
Morningstar or this publication
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
51
1G M
Business
Tempus
Review of 2017 tips: part one
Hard times
were eased
by Burford
T
Easyjet says
electric plane
will take off
next year
A
n electric plane
backed by Easyjet
will take to the air
in 2018, the short-haul
airline has claimed
(Robert Lea writes).
Easyjet is a main
supporter ? though as yet
with no financial backing
? of Wright Electric, a US
West Coast technology
start-up that claims it will
be flying zero-emission
small passenger aircraft
on flights from London to
Paris by 2030.
Easyjet, Britain?s busiest
airline and the largest
carrier at Gatwick, the
country?s second biggest
airport, said yesterday
that it expects the first
trial flights of Wright
Electric?s hybrid version of
the aircraft running on
electric motors and
conventional jet engines in
the coming year.
Easyjet?s shares closed
4p lower at �.41.
Punters muse on Hill?s as
bet for return to M&A
Dominic Walsh Market report
T
he audacious �billion bid
by GVC Holdings for
Ladbrokes Coral may have
garnered most of the
headlines in the gambling
industry in recent weeks, but
yesterday the focus turned on William
Hill as the biggest shareholder in the
bookmaker cashed in some of its
chips.
Parvus Asset Management?s
decision to cut its stake from 13 to
12 per cent would not normally get
the juices flowing but, given that the
hedge fund forced William Hill to
scrap a proposed �billion merger
with Stars Group, the Canadian owner
of Pokerstars and Full Tilt, the online
poker rooms, just over a year ago, the
move was enough to set City punters
musing on the possible implications.
Since June, when its holding was at
a peak of 17.2 per cent, Parvus has
trimmed its holding six times, more
recently taking advantage of the sharp
increase in Hill?s share price on the
back of November?s trading update,
which showed a big improvement in
its online operations. Investors have
also been cheered by the settlement of
a nasty legal spat with two US gaming
software firms, talks over a possible
acquisition in Australia and the
appointment of an industry veteran,
Roger Devlin, as Hill?s chairman.
The impending clampdown on
fixed-odds betting machines in
bookies? shops will be a negative, but
with Parvus tipped to reduce its stake
even further, some analysts are
wondering whether a merger with
Stars Group ? formerly known as
Amaya ? might return to the table.
?With the issues highlighted by
Parvus, notably its underperforming
online operations, now being
addressed, the odds of M&A returning
to the agenda for William Hill must
be shortening,? one analyst said.
The shares in William Hill, which
are up 15 per cent since the trading
update, added 1紁 to 316p, while
Ladbrokes Coral was up 2紁 to
178緋. GVC, which will be propelled
into the FTSE 100 once it completes
the Ladbrokes Coral takeover,
cantered 15p higher to 927絧.
In one of the final trading sessions
of the year, the FTSE 100 gained
28.02 points, a rise of 0.37 per cent, to
7,620.68 points, a record high. The top
riser, up 2.5 per cent to 227緋, was
Old Mutual, which before Christmas
announced the �0 million sale of a
large slice of its investment business.
Occupying the next three spots in
the list of risers were the miners after
the price of copper remained strong.
Wall Street report
Healthcare and technology stocks
came to the rescue of a thinly traded
session. On the downside oil prices
fell almost 1 per cent from a near
two-and-a-half year high to $66.38.
The Dow Jones industrial average
closed up 28.09 points at 24,774.30.
Antofagasta was 20絧 better at
984絧, while Glencore was up 7緋 at
383紁 and Randgold Resources 135p
higher at �.70.
Rio Tinto, which rose by 53p to
�.99絧, also announced that it had
completed its $1.5 billion share
buyback and had launched a fresh
buyback worth $1.925 billion, to be
completed over the next 12 months,
using the proceeds of the Coal &
Allied disposal in Australia.
Admiral Group, the insurer,
advanced by 1.7 per cent to �.55
after Bernstein raised its
recommendation to ?outperform? in
the expectation that its earnings will
grow strongly on the back of home
insurance demand. Tui, the travel
behemoth, went the other way, losing
4p to �.28, as some investors took
advantage of a strong run in the
shares ? up a third over the past 12
months ? to take some profits.
A positive forecast for Boxing Day
sales in the West End of London
squeezed Burberry 33p higher to
�.92, although Next went in the
opposite direction, shedding 44p to
�.35. The biggest faller among the
big caps, down 100p to �.25, was
Ferguson, the heating and plumbing
group formerly known as Wolseley,
after a strong recent run.
In the FTSE 250, which also closed
at a record high on 20,640.04, the
contest for biggest riser of the day was
no contest, as IWG, the owner of
Regus serviced offices, leapt by more
than 27 per cent to 254絧 after
receiving an all-cash takeover
approach from the Canadian private
equity firm Onex and the global
alternative asset manager Brookfield
Asset Management. The shares had
recently hit a low of 189p after
October?s profit warning.
In the brewing and pub sector,
Greene King frothed almost 3 per
cent higher to 549p after a suggestion
in these pages that the recent fall in
the share price may have attracted
vague interest from Patron Capital,
which in the summer teamed up with
Heineken to break up Punch Taverns.
However, most observers consider a
bid for the Hungry Horse and Chef &
Brewer operator highly unlikely and
reckon that Rooney Anand, the chief
executive, will be given time to
restore its fortunes.
One analyst argued that Greene
King?s strong cashflow meant it would
not have to follow Mitchells &
Butlers, up 2絧 to 276絧, in scrapping
its dividend to preserve its cash.
empus had expected 2017
to be a difficult one for
equities, what with the
uncertainties facing
Britain and the global
economy, and had weighted the
year?s picks towards quality
companies with reliable earnings
flow and decent dividend yield.
In the event, with a couple of
trading days to go this year, it has
been a respectable performance,
with more than half recording an
improvement and four of them
outperforming the FTSE 350 index.
Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook was deemed more of
a speculative tip. The tour operator?s
shares looked oversold at the start
of the year, on the back of terrorist
incidents hitting consumer
confidence. It took some time for
the stock to recover, but the shares
re-rated in the summer. Thomas
Cook is seeing customers returning
to Turkey and Egypt, after a slump
that coincided with surging demand
in Spain where tough competition
and a scarcity of beds hit margins.
Peter Fankhauser, chief executive,
has been steadying Thomas Cook
after a turbulent period, including
the fallout of a scandal in Corfu
dating back to 2006. He is optimistic
that bookings to Turkey, which was
destabilised by a coup, could return
to their 2015 peak. He has called
2017 his ?strongest year for
achievements? since he took over
three years ago, and the shares, up
almost 40 per cent, bear that out.
Burford Capital
This column?s best-performing stock
was Burford Capital, a company that
the market had seemingly not fully
appreciated a year ago when it was
trading on a modest price/earnings
multiple. Burford invests in
litigation finance, mainly in the US,
from which it takes a share of the
spoils when the cases are successful.
Part of the reason it was overlooked
has been its lack of obvious
comparisons. Litigation finance has
been on the rise and Burford has
been raising money from issuing
corporate bonds. The proceeds have
helped pay for the acquisition of
Gerchen Keller Capital, a large
competitor. Eye-catching results in
March have helped double Burford?s
share price this year.
Sirius Minerals
The portfolio?s most speculative
punt was Sirius Minerals, its only
penny stock. The company has
embarked on an ambitious project
to develop a potash mine under the
North York Moors and has so far
defied sceptics by winning planning
permission and raising money to
back it. Sirius has moved from the
junior Aim to the main market.
Sirius is a punt that could either
soar or hit some unfortunate snag,
given the sheer complexity of the
project. This year it has performed
relatively solidly. The latest step
forward was made when it signed an
agreement to sell the fertiliser it
plans to produce for distribution in
South East Asia. Sirius hopes more
deals will follow and this remains a
long-term investment.
Nex Group
Tempus tipped Nex Group, as the
old Icap is now called, at the start of
the year fancying the shares would
appreciate as the market sees the
benefits of the disposal of its lowermargin voice-broking business, its
once core operation, to Tullett
Prebon (now TP Icap), its old rival.
It left Nex generating revenue from
its electronic trading side, which was
reliant on the volatility of the
markets it serves, and the post-trade
services. The shares rallied from
464絧 at the end of 2016 to a peak
of 684p in early August, but have
succumbed to some profit-taking
during the second half of the year
and were unsettled by an
unexpected veiled profit warning in
the autumn for its Optimisation
business. The departure of the head
of that division a fortnight later and
disappointing half-year figures in
November have followed. Michael
Spencer, chief executive, promised
results in the second half of the year
would be a ?jolly sight better?.
Premier Oil
Another stock that finished well was
Premier Oil, the one oil stock in the
portfolio. The shares drifted lower
with the price of Brent crude until
the middle of the year since when
they have rallied. Premier had also
been held back by concerns that
despite a financial restructuring of
its debt the level had remained
stubbornly high. Investors have
been distracted by operational
progress this year. The rebound in
Brent coincided with Premier
upgrading its production outlook for
the year in August after reporting
record output in the first half. The
explorer also said in November that
its Catcher field, east of Aberdeen,
was in the latter stages of testing
and operations were expected to
ramp up next year. It said yesterday
that it had extracted its first oil from
the field. A huge discovery further
afield, at the Zama field off Mexico,
also this summer, has also lifted
sentiment.
Tomorrow: the other five tips
Tempus tips 2017: how they fared
Company
Sector
Share price
Change
Dec 30, 2016 Yesterday
Natural resources
Premier Oil
Support services
Bunzl
Banking and finance
Nex Group
Banking and finance
Burford Capital
Natural resources
Sirius Minerals
Support services
Capita
Engineering
Meggitt
Merlin Entertainments Leisure
Leisure
Thomas Cook
Support services
RPC Group
FTSE All share index gain 8.1%
74p
+6.4%
78緋
�.09
-2.9%
�.49
464絧
+29.2%
600p
572絧
�.65 +103.5%
19紁
+19.1%
22.9p
531p
-24.3%
402p
458絧
+5.8%
485紁
448絧
-19.5%
361p
87紁
+40.3%
122.4p
994p
-12.4%
871p
Average portfolio gain 14.5%
Source: Thomson Reuters *Percentage change based on the closing price on Dec 27
552
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
1G M
Business Equity prices
12 month
High Low Company
Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E
1V
Banking & finance
220Y
57W
39O 1PMv
45K +
1
15
14 ACHPv
14
?
? 70.0
33
2.6 24.4
?
? 40.9
2178
1732 Admiral
52K
311Y
2K
26O
4
27
19K ADVFNv
210V Aldermore Gp
1N Ambrianv#
9K Amedeo Resv
Y Amphion Innovsv
17 Amryt Pharmav
1955
+
39
311
+
K
1.1
8.0
? 10.4
1K
?
? -0.2
12N
?
? -2.6
1K
20
11410O 8324O Aon Corpn
9978
1562K 1245 Arbuthnot Bkgv
1384
+
?
? -0.2
?
? -2.8
29O 1.0 37.9
?
2.2 42.5
53K
32 Arden Partnersv
53K
?
? -9.9
17O
14O Argo Groupv
17K
?
?
402V
280K Ashmore Gp
1898X 1576K Aus New Z
544
470K Aviva
66V
56K AXA Property Tr
529K
407W Banco Santander
402V +
1668Y ?
500
57
493K ?
239N
178Y Barclays
202X +
525
382 Beazley
519
3770
2766 BGEO Group
X
V Blue Star Capitalv
268K
187K BP Marsh&Ptnrsv
19
10N Braveheart Invv
392V
2582
8K
59V
122
297Y Brewin Dolphin
1817 Brooks Macv
4K Camp & Nichs Marv
51N Carador
71 Cenkos Secsv
3508
246
16O
392V +
8
52V ?
375V
205W Charles Taylor
284
409N
340 Chesnara
1X
1715
175K
1141X
340N
1560W 1173X Deutsche Bk
?
?
1K
62V Lloyds Bkg Gp
67O +
57V
41N LMS Capital
48
3O
3.4
6.4
?
? -3.7
?
3983
222K EPE Special Oppsv
245
?
1.1
12W
303
193K Esure
256K ?
1N 3.2 18.0
2K
894N +
13N
? 14.5
44K Fiskev
72K
?
?
67
46K Frenkel Toppingv
54
?
2.0 33.7
27O
10V GLI Financev
10V
?
18.5 -1.3
75
666 FBD
?
861
3N
3834
43
417
+
2
?
?
845
?
5
1.7
?
2V 4.6
?
808K
4O 2.7 12.9
1X 10.2 15.5
357
254O H&T Groupv
334O +
112
74 Hansard Global
1781
1208 Hargreaves L
86Y ?
+
1781
325
220W Hastings Gp
319X ?
167K
125 Helios Underv
137K
? Highway Capital#
997K Hiscox
25
N 3.1 22.5
?
15K ?
1432
1.3 43.0
K
1.0
?
? -7.9
Y Marechale Capv
762 Mattioli Woodsv
1W Metal Tigerv
32N Miton Groupv
297K Gresham Housev
775 Gresh Hse Stratv
66O +
7O Manx Finv
2925 Metro Bank
417
64N Gulf Invest
118N Man
6437O 5047Y Marsh McLn
931
66O
O
2844 Lond Stk Ex Gp 3746
206W
334
904Y
O Lon Capital Grpv
1964N 1674K Nat Aust Bk
+
206W +
K 3.9 15.7
?
? -2.3
?
?
8
3K
1.1 44.1
3.2
7.6
193K Boot (Henry)
319
+
755 Bovis Homes
1167
+
36N ?
?
N 2.7 22.3
162K
315N
231N Numisv?
315
?
2
2.0 17.1
324O
173K
151 Oakley Cap Invsv
164
+
229
188 Old Mutual
227O +
470N
317N Onesavings Bank
409W +
3
1K Origo Partnersv
1K
?
2V Ortac Resv
2W ?
1.9 17.5
2
4.9 36.5
496
733
491Y IG Group
713K +
13K 4.4 15.4
90
64K Impaxv
158
?
2V
1N Ottoman Fdv#
400 Paragon
73 Park Groupv
K 2.7
4.6
5K 2.6 14.4
2.5
N
90K
93N
? -1.9
248N
1
4.1
9.1
798K
723 Phoenix Gp Hldgs
778
5
5.9
8K 4.2 11.1
?
? PLUS Marketsv#
?
?
3V
1 Plutus PowerGenv
2N
4.2
7.4 22.8
1.6 22.3
6N 3.7 21.6
6.6
? -3.2
O 5.8 11.1
W
? -6.5
7
3.9 11.4
150
?
1
5.9
7K
1
181V
112K IP Group
139V ?
?
1373
21O 1.1
?
1V 3.9 16.1
83Y +
K 8.9 68.3
2.3 25.4
?
? Proxamav
?
K 3.1 21.4
1915
1532 Prudential
1884K ?
11
169
124 Just Group
169
?
5.0
150O
759K
611 Lancashire Hdgs
675K +
2K 1.7 10.9
149O
41N
29K Leaf Clean Energyv
34 Leeds Groupv
232O Legal & Gen
N
73505N
519
59K
29K ?
37
K
753O +
367K Liontrust?
489
+
47K ?
1.9
? -2.5
14V
2800
2W Quadrise Fuels Intlv
109N Randall & Quilterv
95 Rasmala PLCv
1927 Rathbone Brs
182
19O CLS Hldgs
1K
920K +
6.0
48Y
112K
W CSF Grpv
2663
+
1N
12.5 14.9
5700 Daejan
6025
+ 145
1.5
?
? -0.7
3077
2451 Derwent London
3064
+
20
1.7 32.0
?
?
10
6 Dolphin Capitalv
6Y
?
? -1.4
?
? -0.5
?
6.7
17N
12 Dragon-Ukra Propv
16X +
1
?
?
6.5
50K
32K Eastrn Euro Prpv
32K
?
?
4.8
? -0.1
8X
35K 14.6
1W EQTECv
2K +
X
? -2.0
2K 2.3 17.6
58
46K First Propv?
48N
?
3.2
?
?
71
47 Fletcher Kingv
65
?
6.1 10.5
7.1
W
?
?
145
?
? -5.1
?
2530 CRH
+
7005
130
2598
4W
1
2.1 30.8
112N
1583
777
535 Gleeson (MJ)
79K ?
1266
770
+
+
6.8
O 2.5 20.3
21
35
+
+
683K +
5K 1.5
?
10X 5.6 16.1
?
? Rolinco N/V
2489O
?
?
?
609K
501K Hammerson
539K +
5K 4.4
9.6
6X 3.0 30.2
285O
214Y Ryl Bk Scot
275O
?
?
?
145K
108X Hansteen Hldgs
1
666K
562K RSA Ins
626
+
8K 2.5 55.8
109
87K Harworth Gp
143
+
108K
2Y 1.6 16.5
1Y 4.1 11.7
?
0.7 18.3
Investment companies
12 month
High Low Company
969K
208K
123K
1349
747K
?
272K
884
878
1374
1017O
2160
1838
1545W
878
91O
360
164K
346
209K
499
176K
1317
474
403
63
50K
732K
785K
3008
143
242K
201
441
246
494
779K
759N
5110
319O
1340
958
331O
151O
1391
649
363
108
106K
424K
109
405K
247W
230K
150N
254N
777
133
720K
47X
?
1090
1030
1306
1425
201N
881N
1200
1791
174K
219K
108Y
842K
259K
304K
308
144
209
102
193K
83K
522
Price
Yld Dis(-)
(p) +/- % or Pm
687K 3I Group?
910
186 3i Infrastructure?
206O
107K Abrdn Div I&G
123K
1095 Aberforth Smlr
1325
634K Alliance?
747K
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573 Baillie Gifford SN
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1648K BH Macro
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1414Y BH Macro
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686K Biotech Growth
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67K BLK Com Inc?
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296O BlckREmEur
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129O BlckFroInv
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277 BLK Grt Euro
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189N BlackRck Inc & Gwth 209K
375K BLK Latin Am
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150 BlckRck N Amer Inc? 161
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314K BLK Wld Min
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27K Blue Plan G&I Uts#
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2569 Caledonia Inv?
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686 Edinburgh IT
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489K Edin Wwide
759N
912K Electra Pte Eq
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283K EP Global Opp
316N
1015 European Asset
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775 European Investment 940
283 F&C Cap&Inc?
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134K F&C Comm Prop?
135O
1221 F&C Glbl Smaller
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540K Foreign & Col
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290 F&C Priv Eq Ord
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97K F&C UK HIT A
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390K F&C UK HIT UNIT
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98N F&C UK Real Estate? 102N
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128N IPST Bal
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118K
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113 Tex Hldgs
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13K Surface Trsfmsv
146K
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77K Stadium Groupv
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0.1 -2.5
46K Michelmershv?
287K ?
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217K Somero Enterv
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22X
313O
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396K Solid Statev
1662
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1411 Smiths
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1.5 25.4
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1O 6.9 11.7
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?
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85O +
9W Six Hundredv
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237N +
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267K ?
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246
5
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450 Colefaxv
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322
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18 Scien Dig Imagingv
175O Senior
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849K ?
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223K Rotork
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1714 Coca Cola HBC
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38K
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4144 Spirax-Sarco
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1.8 21.5
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95K
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639K Rolls-Royce
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2229 Spectris
1130
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41K Renold
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4W 2.4 24.7
334
385 Character Grpv
1149
2831W ?
44K 1.5
2834
837K Churchill Chinav
231O
17Y PV Crystalox Solar
2503 Renishaw
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?
550
26
831
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299X PZ Cussons
147V McCarthy&S
530
1162K
+
116K Pressure Techv
+
101
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2X PipeHawkv
1744Y 1375K SKF B
?
35
363X
277X Marshalls
29
290O
0.9 25.3
7.7
272N
2.1 22.6
31
196Y
12187K 10501 Mountview
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3235N +
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981
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174 McKay Secs?
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706K Oxford Inst
3186K 2400K Philips El nv
5555
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291N +
92N
8.3
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971K +
245N
2.5 29.7
10K 1.9
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55 Molinsv
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252 John Laing Group
189K
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971K
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12K 1.3 49.9
410K Meggitt
317O
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2067K +
189
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22N ?
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261V
421N James Halsteadv
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2132K 1367K Judges Scientificv
1340
526
?
542
53
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2.8
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19N LXB retail Propsv
2.2
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5K 3.8 22.8
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41K
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185X +
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53 Low & Bonar
1096 Hill & Smith?
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42K
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146N LondonMetric?
982K Gooch Hsegov
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89O
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24K
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317K
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250K +
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18N Lon & Assoc
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217K Industrial Multi Pro
24K
294N GKN
?
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179V ?
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395
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8K 1.4 17.8
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2266W Kingspan Group
376K
232 Fenner
40K 0.6 41.0
189
3278
4V
50
2X 2.9 11.8
N 2.7 24.9
411K
+
262N ?
?
?
?
1501 Nicholsv
?
?
?
?
1958
?
?
?
1270
3.0
O 2.7
?
1X
336K +
3875
887K Highcroft Invs
17O
1W Feedbackv
215
8343
587O
7V Elektronv
4Y
157K MS Intlv?
1N
952K
19K
1K
3933K 3027 Imperial Brands? 3125
2K 2.6 50.6
9Y 2.8 15.0
281Y Morgan Advanced
33
329K +
2421O ?
219
892
281K Helical Bar
? 41.5
2719O 1963Y Electrolux 'B'
338W
?
356N
1.5 14.3
23
1O 5.2 13.9
1730
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8
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123K
1.2 11.7
+
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354O ?
2610
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560 Dialight
+
X Trinity Capv#
2685K 2087K Diageo
460
615 Dewhurstv
148O +
3318
280 Heath (Samuel)v
1.3 -2.9
135Y Tritax Big Box REIT
O
537K
1
265 Tyman
545
13.1
8.4
18.3
13.0
17.6
46.0
22.0
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51.0
?
19.7
7.1
9.8
11.8
-7.0
8.6
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?
33.4
8.7
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8.6
21.6
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16.9
15.7
13.5
13.1
13.0
0.7 28.7
151W
2671
3.6
4.1
2.6
3.7
4.0
3.2
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2.7
?
4.5
?
3.6
3.3
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2.3
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0.6
3.1
143.6
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1.8
?
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4.4
2.5
8.6
?
6.3
? -7.3
5
367
820
5
2
1470
3O 3.7 11.7
270 Town Centre?
+
1975
1K 0.8 11.5
113K Titon
755
1115
70K +
187
3.1 16.1
886K Halma
+
1408 Travis Perkins
26K Croma Securityv
?
1525 Goodwin
423K +
174K
86
63 Chamberlinv
450V
1322
207
318O
418 Castings?
2125
?
153V Taylor Wimpey
1696
490
7.2
2.8 13.2
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312K Telford Homesv?
1985
?
+
+
+
? -0.2
207W
Y
2220
60N
3510
2494
1797K
23
87K
17O
1210
772W
433N
3Y
38
3055K
4W
1700
K
44K
529
1X
9K
281W
830
120
41O
4541K
1819
13K
22518V
9.4
430K
5643
1883K S & U
56K Schroder REIT
2901 Schroders
2150 Schroders N/V
1625 Secure Trust Bk
22O Sharev
65 Sigma Capv
16O Sosanderv
998K St James Place
651O Stand Chart
405 Strd Life Aber
2 Starvestv
33 STM Groupv
2578W Sun Life Can
3Y Tau Capitalv
1390 TBC Bank Group
N Tiger Res Finv
44K TISO Blackstar Gpv
413K TP ICAP
1W Trading Emissnsv
9K UltimateSportsv
258V Virgin Money Plc
512K Volverev
120 WH Irelandv
38K Walker Crips Grp
3712O Wells Fargo
1702O Westpac
5O Zoltav Resourcev
19849Y Zurich Fincl
1.5
?
+
23
660
2420
65K
3531
2541
2455
29
88
462K
1238
846X
446N
5
59K
3110O
5V
1818
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63O
544K
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15
348
862K
150
48K
4613K
2034
40
23165O
8.2
?
72
1.7 18.3
798
291
5.3
109
104N
540K Grafton Gp Uts
2.8
?
2.1 15.9
234V Grainger
14.6
11
42N
+
587K Gr Portland?
? -0.2
2
4
?
291
3K 1.4 19.1
2K 2.6 -8.8
786
738Y
4.4
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282
?
? -7.8
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1.7
2.3 10.3
+
13K Steppe Cementv
4457K 3402K Taliesin Propv
8K 1.5 10.2
?
13
178
571K Unite Group
?
?
V
176K ?
302X St Modwen Prp
7.4
1022
209 Urban&Civic plc
?
? Red Leopardv#
144N Reddev
23
63N Speymill Macauv
4.6
?
+
786
2670Y
W
182
404
105K Smart (J)
11K
579
286
? Robeco N/V
8.4
73
38 SigmaRocv
650K +
6.9 21.5
?
?
841
64K Foxtons Group
1142 Galliford Try
93O SIG
2N 1.6
?
?
14V +
2920
873 Shaftesbury
248N +
?
?
K 5.3 10.4
?
V
753O Liberty Group
42K Livermore Invsv
6K 2.3 20.2
?
270V ?
? Legendary Invsv
4
589K Provident
564K +
+
3 Polo Resourcesv
3265
628
? 19.4
374O +
7K
+
?
338K Jarvis Securitiesv
40
81N Downing ONE VCT
+
?
393W Jupiter Fund Mgmt
276
333O Direct Line Ins
1373
? 22.9
625
8.7
88X
968K Jardine Lyd Th
O
?
V
628
? 66.5
411N
? IRF Euro Fin Inv
1022
+
? -0.2
156W +
V 14.0
? -2.9
K 3.9 11.5
51
81K +
2.1 19.1
150N Intl Public Pntshp
1
22
579
8
166K
6.2 13.4
?
6.7
?
? 15.8
0.7 39.0
+
5.8
8.4
?
536
?
12K 0.8
5.2
?
332K
+
6
32W
461W Investec
993
525K +
28K
322K Investment Co
687 Savills
452Y Crest Nicholson
30K Phaunos Timber
627K
993
636K
22N PCF Groupv
0.6 39.4
?
4
38V
2.0 23.0
?
0.4
3.8
30K
?
84
8
?
6.8
342K
V 7.9 10.0
?
315N +
?
2.2 15.4
126K +
315 Cohortv
59
253 Cap & Count Prop
404O
6.1
110X Cobham
462K
36N +
+
215N Craven Housev
5
167W
33Y RDI REIT
57
483
19
163K Chemring Group
495
2X 3.3 17.7
+
204K
37K Safelandv
87X +
201N +
176K
338V Safestore
9O Carecapitalv
?
?
495
59N Clarke T
?
?
53K Real Estate Invsv
11K Secure Propertyv
K
?
63
449N SEGRO
5.2 10.7
14W ?
?
?
?
58
1.0 12.9
5
O
146
?
1702K +
?
?
40K
425 Redrow
1.0 13.7
? 53.4
23N ?
61K
?
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21K Raven Russia Wnts
664
5V Cap XX Ldv
+
? 27.1
11K 1.7 22.6
N
5
1
157K IPF
133K Raven Russia CRP?
28O
?
17N
?
+
?
152K ?
5O 1.9 13.6
222
148
O
142K
47O +
86K Caledonian Tstv
350Y +
1151
44X Raven Russia
? 27.2
120
4.9 10.5
425
4.3 11.7
108 Countrywide
?
850
415 Caffyns?
9
223Y Countryside Props?
918
800 Braime(TF&JH)v
530
7W ?
?
683
198K
5.8
347O
3.8 14.7
371K
7.3
? -7.0
6K 2.1 14.1
16
? -1.4
?
?
K 2.0 43.6
9.7
2Y 2.7 11.9
1N
1.3
2W 3.3 24.9
3.2 11.3
2K 3.5
55
5Y PME African Infrav
+
50N Cap & Regnl
86N
26
489N ?
?
843K PayPoint
61K
71N Breedon Groupv
579 Br Land
1712K 1550 Cardiff Prop
9.5
?
1088
683
? -0.3
167
1151
92K
6.4 32.6
24
K 9.7 11.9
1213
850
122
10
?
9.2
109K Raven R CNV Pref?
+
? -9.9
?
2X 2.5 17.3
124K
4214
?
900
1O 4.4 12.2
2787 Berkeley
10
919
782K Braime A N/Vv
116N +
4214
336W
+
625 Bodycote
900
105N Primary Hlth
?
+
962K
123K
?
280
132K Bailey (CH)v
? -0.5
? -0.1
392Y +
9.9
861K +
155
?
?
318 Polypipe Group
3.0
217K Billington Hldgsv
4.9 12.2
Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E
2O
8K
22
663 Big Yellow Group?
12
12 month
High Low Company
87K
436K
+
297K
+
2731
0.9 88.1
3667
861K
1O Pires Investmentsv
87K Plaza Cent
4
2432 Bellway?
K 1.7 30.8
1744 Persimmon
6K 2.8 11.5
3792
58W 1.7 22.3
2N
220
9.9
+
3564
4
?
?
762K +
6084
?
8.4
Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E
2.8
291
?
2890
?
1W 3.8
650K +
W
+
12 month
High Low Company
?
462W Barratt Devs
2
+
?
+
2K
253K Balfour Beatty
+
763K +
12X
63
700
600
300
2V Aukett Fitz Robv
298W
464K NEX Group?
2W
5Y Ashley Hsev
44 Assura Grp?
?
?
620O HSBC
684 Intermediate Cap?
63
1713
769X
1.4 25.3
14O
Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E
1W 3.4
9O ?
2W
12 month
High Low Company
0.6
?
?
1426W ?
70
1K Energiser Invv
73
5.4
?
1458
334O +
65 El Oro
Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E
? -6.4
9N 12.3
70
3N
? -1.2
12 month
High Low Company
?
8N 5.0
1113K ?
?
?
1470
2.2 11.4
?
W
188
19W
K 1.4 17.0
9
W Draganfly Invsv
156Y EFG-Hermes Hldg
19W EIHv
?
7K 1.9 14.1
Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E
21N
3.7 13.0
7
6
?
1V +
260 CYBG
?
385K ?
409O ?
630W Commerzbk
4.2 33.1
Y
114
X Clear Leisurev
109 CMC Markets
?
?
+
332K City Lon Inv Gp
1316 Close Bros
8.3 13.9
?
107K ?
285 Charles Stanley?
432
1W 4.1 16.9
1864K +
287O
61X City of Lon GpvV
?
K
434
114
+
7.5
4
?
12 month
High Low Company
W
87
? -5.5
0.3 47.1
56X 3.3 29.7
N
?
? 33.7
?
?
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
53
1G M
Equity prices Business
12 month
High Low Company
Price
(p) +/- Yld% P/E
17V
9
Y Physiomicsv
277K 34 Premier Veterinary
37
3V
5O
3 Proteome Sciesv
43K 28K Realm Therapeuticsv 37
8108 6355 Reckitt Benck 6800
1V
Y
X Sareum Hldgsv
5036 3499 Shire
3894
245K 72Y Silence Therapv
200K
25X
35
25K Sinclair Pharmav
1431 1170 Smith & Neph 1286
361
221K Spire Hcare
246W
170
242K 142K Summit Corpv
342K
417K 265 Swallowfieldv
11V
31N
6Y Synairgenv
20K
5X Tissue Regenixv
8V
240
140 Tiziana Lifev
141
255
317K 148K Tristelv
959
635 UDG Healthcare
860
4W
7X
Y ValiRxv
163
89Y Vectura Grp
114
8N
34W
8N Vernalisv
106
7025
103K Verona Pharmav
+
+
+
?
+
+
+
?
+
+
?
+
+
?
+
+
N
V
?
K
33
?
13K
K
N
7
N
5
?
V
K
?
?
12
V
8K
?
K
?
?
?
?
2.2
?
0.5
?
?
1.8
1.5
?
0.9
?
?
?
1.3
1.1
?
?
?
?
?
-1.3
-3.9
-3.0
22.8
58.3
28.2
?
-5.1
17.0
18.5
?
18.4
-3.6
-5.6
?
34.0
40.0
-0.5
?
-2.0
-6.2
Industrials
81O
8655X
10950K
247K
4O
10
173K
89X
4396
2Y
1947K
317
819O
2V
72
?
5092
3473
3503
2130
54N
133K
155
515K
558K
779
17K
35821W
509K
4257X
3
91O
2644
667K
469K
59 Accsys Tech
7073 BASF
8748 Bayer DM50
97K Biome Techv
3V Byotrolv
7V Camb Gbl Timberv
64K Cloudcall Groupv
51K Coats Grp
3150 Croda
1O Cronin Gpv
1135 Cropper (James)v?
259 Elementis
628 Evans (M.P.)v
X Hardidev
55 Inspiration Healthv
? Intl Ferro Metals#
4092W Jardine Math
2420N Jardine Strat
2727 Johnson Math?
1605 Mondi
6 Plant Impactv
110K Plastics Capitalv
97K Robinsonv
318O Scapav
403 Smith (DS)
690Y Swire Pacific
4 Symph Environv
30471W Syngenta
372 Synthomer
3104N Takeda Pharm
Y TyraTech Incv
30X Velocysv
1832 Victrex
452K Wynnstay Groupv
240 Zotefoams
12 month
High Low Company
189
75K
5X
136K
57
+
+
+
+
+
?
?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
?
+
?
?
+
+
?
?
7
8Y
?
?
?
?
1X
33
?
?
1V
7N
?
?
?
8V
16W
13
29
?
?
3
4O
3
1Y
?
518N
1X
X
?
W
11
2K
5V
?
3.1
2.5
?
?
?
?
0.7
1.6
?
0.7
2.3
1.2
?
?
?
2.5
0.7
2.4
2.6
?
1.2
5.4
0.4
2.9
2.9
?
?
1.8
2.8
?
?
1.7
2.5
1.2
?
16.6
22.3
?
?
?
-6.4
22.1
29.9
?
30.4
23.4
43.0
?
54.9
?
6.1
5.6
15.7
16.8
-2.6
15.1
19.3
31.1
25.3
6.3
?
41.3
15.1
30.8
-4.9
-3.5
27.0
51.1
34.6
1250
959 Pershing Square
245 DCD Mediav
575
1285
1027 Euromoney In Inv?
4462K
597K
4X 7digital Gpv
23 Aeorema Commsv?
49 Altitude Groupv
47N Arcontech Grpv
267Y Ascential
174K
K 6.4 -9.6
111O
1K 3.7
?
4
0.9 23.7
K
?
? -1.0
316K ?
1225
?
410
+
420 GlobalDatav
580
67O Gocompare.com
100
234 IG Design Grpv?
404
36N
20 Immedia Grpv
25
11X
8N Ind News&Med
1X 0.4 81.1
26
2.0 37.4
4W
?
?
+
8X
?
?
1.1
?
1
? 26.3
?
1.1 26.2
1
?
?
?
?
2.8
761
629K Informa
725
?
1
2.6 29.0
195N
150 ITE Group
173N ?
1
2.6
219K
146Y ITV
164
?
23K
1
3.9 14.7
? -6.9
? 62.2
824
496 Just Eat
765
?
1K
292 M&C Saatchiv
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?
uAIM company; # Price at suspension;
? Ex dividend; ? Ex scrip; s Ex rights issue;
t Ex all; � Ex capital distribution; * figures
or report awaited; . . . No significant data.
Companies in bold are constituents of the
FTSE 100 Index. Investment Cos sector Nav
Dis or Prm supplied by Morningstar.
Data as shown is
for information
purposes only. No offer is made by
Morningstar or this publication
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
55
1G M
The third instalment of
our year in obituaries, from
Hugh Hefner to Christine Keeler
Pages 58-59
Register
Obituaries
Nicholas Rayner
Auctioneer who sold the Duchess of Windsor?s jewellery collection, crash-landed an aircraft and briefly held the Cresta run record
COURTESY OF THE FAMILY
?This is the most exciting jewellery sale
ever,? Nicholas Rayner told the press as
he prepared to welcome more than
1,500 bidders, including Elton John and
Joan Collins, to a lavish marquee on the
shores of Lake Geneva.
In 1987 the dashing auctioneer, by
then head of Sotheby?s in Geneva, was
tasked with selling the Duchess of
Windsor?s jewellery collection. It was
almost a year after her death and 15
since the the death of the duke, who was
said to have been so proud of the jewels
he gave ?the woman I love? that he
wanted the pieces dismantled after her
death so no one could wear them again.
Events turned out rather differently.
When Angus Ogilvy, a director of
Sotheby?s, noticed that the formidable
Ma顃re Suzanne Blum, the duchess?s
lawyer in Paris, had rejected Mohamed
Al Fayed?s offer to to buy the jewels, he
instructed Rayner to see her. On finding that Blum was not interested in his
Sotheby?s catalogue, Rayner discovered that she was blind. When she burst
into tears, Rayner comforted her; Blum
then agreed that Sotheby?s should
auction the jewels. Fast-living and full
of enthusiasm for new projects, Rayner
spent the next few months travelling
the world to promote the sale.
Rayner, whose clothes were often
historical and whose home in Old
Town Geneva was furnished with packing cases, organised the two-day, blacktie auction outside the Beau-Rivage
Hotel, where the duke and duchess had
stayed in 1939. He invited the world?s
richest people and 250 members of the
press, including TV crews. Shirley Bassey was among those to wind their way
through the hotel for a glimpse of the
?alternative crown jewels?. About 300
bidders were linked in by CCTV in the
hotel ballroom and 1,300 by satellite in
Sotheby?s sale rooms in New York.
With his eye for valuing jewels honed
by years of working with clients such as
Imelda Marcos, Rayner argued that,
even without the royal connection ?
which was revealed by intimate inscriptions such as ?We are ours now? after
the couple?s secret engagement ? it
was a unique collection. The duke
had appreciated quality workmanship,
while the duchess enjoyed showmanship. ?The style is extravagant, because
they loved large and colourful pieces,
but it is all in very good taste,? Rayner
said. His favourite was a Van Cleef and
Arpels bracelet, with a diamond strap
and a buckle of sapphires, which the
duke had given to Wallis Simpson on
their wedding day.
Thanks to his charismatic auctioneering skills, including a careful ?All
done, New York?? as each bid peaked,
Rayner ensured that the prices soared
to between 10 and 100 times the
estimates, resulting in gasps of
astonishment and rounds of applause.
In a cliffhanging finish a Tokyo
diamond merchant fought with an
anonymous telephone bidder to pay
$3.15 million, the highest price of the
night, for the celebrated McLean
diamond ring given to the duchess in
1950, while Elizabeth Taylor phoned
in from her poolside in Los Angeles to
buy a diamond clip for $623,327. The
night?s total was a record $33,507,131
(almost � million today). The proceeds went to the Pasteur Institute in
Two years later he set up its new offices
in Geneva, specialising in jewellery. He
travelled almost constantly to value the
great jewellery collections of the world.
On one occasion the Nizam of Hyderabad asked him to value a hoard of treasure. Upon returning from India, he
picked up a newspaper to read that
Nicholas Rayner of Sotheby?s had valued the nizam?s jewels at �million. He
joked that maybe his three days at the
nizam?s palace had been for insurance
purposes only.
On another occasion a valuable jewel
found by a road worker in a gutter in
Rome was sent to Rayner for sale. It was
impossible to establish the stone?s provenance, until Rayner advertised the
find in the press. Gianni Agnelli, the
Fiat chairman, contacted him to say
that he had given it to a secret girl-
The Nizam of Hyderabad
asked him to value a
hoard of treasure
Nicholas Rayner, who was fast-living and full of enthusiasm for new projects,
auctioning the Duchess of Windsor?s jewellery collection in Geneva in 1987
Paris, as had been requested by the
duchess.
Rayner was so exhausted in the days
before the auction that his family
recalled having to squirt a drink or two
down his throat to keep him going,
while the effect on his long-term health
was such that he didn?t fully recover. Yet
his only sadness was that the 300-piece
collection was broken up. ?But I hope it
will continue to be worn by elegant and
glamorous ladies,? he said. ?Jewellery
always looks dead in a museum.?
Nicholas Rayner, known as Nichol
He once found himself
in prison for racing his
car across a frozen lake
by his friends, was one of three adventurous brothers. He was born at Ashcombe Tower, an art-deco house near
Dawlish in Devon built by his parents in
1935 after his father, Ralph Rayner, became Tory MP for Totnes. It had views
over the sea and towards Dartmoor and
he was brought up to hunt and shoot.
His mother, Elizabeth (n閑 Courtauld),
was an accomplished artist from the
family behind the Courtauld Institute.
Rayner?s prep school, Spyway in
Dorset, was chosen because of its proximity to the sea, where the boys bathed
into the autumn months. He fitted in
less well at Eton, where he became
determined to go into the army as a
stepping stone to an independent
career, rather than the City, and
appeared at least once in front of the
headmaster.
After Sandhurst, where he was often
in the guard room for having long hair,
he was commissioned into the 11th
Hussars. In those days cavalry regiments encouraged their officers to fly,
which led to many exploits. Serving in
Northern Ireland, he took the wingtip
off his Auster by flying into telephone
wires. He was grounded. With his
elder brother he invested �0 in
their own aircraft. It had no electrics,
decent instruments, lights or radio,
but they set out for Rome regardless.
st
While flying off the mountainous coast
of the Italian Riviera they hit a storm
and the fuel tank ruptured. The brothers had just enough height to scrape
though a mountain pass and glide into
a field of hollyhocks.
A year later Rayner flew the Auster to
Ireland, but finding it shrouded in fog
he realised that he had not enough fuel
to cross back to England. He dived
down to a fishing boat and, making
gestures out of the door, induced a
fisherman to climb on to the bow of his
boat and point to the Isle of Man.
The brothers also bought a classic 7m
yacht built in the 1920s. She leaked like
a sieve, but sailed like lightning because
they rarely took in a reef. He narrowly
survived being swept overboard in a
wild sea off south Devon when the mast
was blown down in a storm. His brothers grabbed him and lifted him back on
to a deck crackling with ice before they
were picked up by a Brigham trawler.
Aged 28, Rayner left the army and
here he set up two seawent to Malta, where
food restaurants and a model car racetrack. Moving on to Italy, he opened a
restaurant, opposite Porto Ercole on
the west coast, where he was inundated
with visiting English friends. An Italian
woman, Marina Patriarca, entertained
them with her guitar and he in turn
began to help with the marketing of her
costume jewellery business.
He soon determined to find out more
about the real thing and went to see a
jeweller in Rome who taught him to set
gemstones. He left Italy with Marina to
get married in Devon and live in
London, where he could further his
new career. He met Andrew Grima,
who was to become the doyen of
modern jewellery designers in London,
and started working for Chaumet.
In Paris he discovered Cartier and,
by posting a ring he had designed
through their letter box, was taken on.
He joined Sotheby?s in Zurich in 1975.
friend, who had dropped it by accident.
After selling the duchess?s jewellery
Rayner became ill with high blood
pressure. Once recovered, he set to
work creating a successful annual
Sotheby?s jewellery sale in St Moritz. It
was a town he knew well because he
had first ridden on the Cresta
to
toboggan
track during a family
sk
skiing
holiday aged 17. For a brief
m
moment
in January 1965 he held
th record for the fastest run. He
the
an his brothers also raced their
and
ca on the frozen lake, for which
cars
Ra
Rayner
once found himself in
pr
prison.
His mother swore never to
vis St Moritz again, but having
visit
be persuaded by her sons to do
been
so she was then arrested when a
so,
po
police
officer thought she was in
th driving seat as Rayner drove to
the
he hotel the wrong way up a oneher
wa street.
way
Rayner seldom returned to
Ro
Rome,
where his wife and their
da
daughter,
Desideria, who married a
Sic
Sicilian
actor and film producer, had
se
settled.
He met his second wife, Laetitia Reynolds, in New York while
tit
de
demonstrating the duchess?s jewels;
th were married after the sale. She
they
re
restored
a beautiful house for them in
Ea
Eaton
Square, London, where they
live until Rayner had a stroke. They
lived
too eventually separated.
In 2011 Rayner found himself in difficulty for other reasons. While he was in
hospital a 57-year-old carer made
claims on his London flat and assets
and took him to court for not honouring his ?promises?. She was eventually
ordered to repay him �2 million,
although Rayner had to pay the substantial legal costs.
In typical style, he never complained,
even as his condition worsened. In the
last months of his life his daughter flew
him by air ambulance to Rome, not
only to be with his two grandsons, but
also to look out once again over the city
where his jewellery career had begun.
Nicholas Rayner, auctioneer, was born on
March 3, 1938. He died on December 21,
2017, aged 79, after a prolonged period
of ill health following a stroke
556
1G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Register
Fritz Lustig
Jewish refugee who gathered valuable intelligence for the Allies by eavesdropping on German prisoners of war
On a summer?s day in 1943 a GermanJewish refugee serving in the British
Army?s Pioneer Corps arrived at Chalfont and Latimer station in Buckinghamshire, where he was told that he
would be met. He had applied for transfer to the Intelligence Corps and hoped
this indicated success. Waiting at the
station was a vehicle driven by a pretty
woman from the ATS who, after a cursory greeting, offered him a bet that he
would be promoted to sergeant by the
end of the day.
Fritz Lustig thought this an easy win
and laughingly accepted. On arrival at
Latimer House he was informed by one
Colonel Thomas Kendrick that he had
been selected for work with the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation
Centre (CSDIC), which would be a
more valuable contribution to the war
effort than anything he might achieve
in a fighting unit. He also told Lustig
that he was now a sergeant; his driver
from the station knew the routine and
used it to supplement her pay.
Kendrick, a former member of MI6,
had been engaged from shortly before
the outbreak of war in planning the
establishment of CSDIC with the
Tower of London as the venue. This
idea had been dropped in favour of
Latimer House in Buckinghamshire,
Trent Park, north of London, and Wilton Park in Sussex. By the time Lustig
joined, a highly sophisticated operation
was being conducted in the three
venues, in which high-ranking German
Fritz Lustig pictured during the war
and Italian prisoners of war and
specialists such as Luftwaffe pilots and
U-boat commanders had their private
conversations overheard.
After his induction at Latimer House,
Lustig was moved to Wilton and then to
Trent Park, where the secret listeners
eavesdropped on conversations caught
by microphones concealed in rooms
used by the prisoners. This included
bedrooms because late-night conversations proved to be the most productive.
Although German servicemen had
been warned before going on active
service that if they were captured their
conversations would be monitored, almost all the senior officers, cushioned
by comfortable living conditions, good
food and seemingly friendly officer escorts, became uninhibited in their private conversations.
Almost every listener, like Lustig, was
a former enemy alien, and while they
listened avidly to the prisoners? discussions of military matters, they were
horrified to learn of the atrocities committed against their people at home in
Germany and in the occupied countries. Concern quickly arose from talk
of the development of Vergeltungswaffe
(retaliation) weapons, the V-1 ?flying
bombs? and V-2 ballistic rockets to be
launched against London in the summer of 1944 and, later, against the captured port of Antwerp.
Lustig and his fellow secret listeners
learnt to recognise the voices they
overheard and identify them with individuals and their personalities. Voices
of the vain and boastful were easy to
pick up, although how it became known
that one general slept in his dress tunic
with medals remains obscure, unless
they were able to detect their clinking
as he turned over in uneasy slumber.
The talk of the more intellectually
thoughtful prisoners, such as the
well-read General Wilhelm Ritter von
Thoma, were followed closely, but he
was cautious and would often retire to
his room to read. Von Thoma had been
captured in the western desert and
when Rommel appeared to be within
striking distance of Alexandria, Lustig
had written despondently to his
parents: ?Unfortunately the war situation does not look very rosy. My temperament does not allow me to adopt a
carpe diem [to seize the day, or taking
each day as it comes] which would be
desirable at such times.? This letter was
written shortly after the captive generals had been heard discussing a plan to
concentrate German divisions on the
Bulgarian-Turkish border in preparation for a breakthrough into Palestine
to link up with Rommel in Egypt.
Lustig?s family were safe in Portugal,
but the generals? cold-blooded manner
It became known that
one general slept in his
dress tunic with medals
of discussing such atrocities as the
widespread shooting of Jews in Poland
and the systematic gassing of them in
special vans taking them from their
homes was distressing to hear.
Fritz Lustig was born in Berlin in 1919,
the son of Franz Lustig, a sales representative for a bicycle manufacturer,
and his wife, Rose. Fritz came to Britain
in April 1939 on a temporary visa to escape the Nazi oppression of the Jews.
His parents, brother and two sisters escaped to Portugal, while he began work
in Cambridge as a jobbing builder until
BRYN LENNON/GETTY IMAGES
Sharon Laws
Latecomer to the world of professional cycling
Sharon Laws was well established in
her career as an environmental conservationist when she bought her first road
bike and had to ask where the brakes
were positioned. During her initial race
in Australia she knew nothing of Queen
of the Mountains, a subsidiary title
awarded to the best climber. So there
was amazement when she finished
second at the Australian National Road
Race Championships in her thirties.
Unquenchable enthusiasm accounted for her late flowering. ?Statistically I
was unlikely to become a professional
? let alone at the age of 34 with no
background in cycling, go to the
Olympics in my first year of racing,
become national road race champion at
38, win a stage in the Tour of Ard鑓he
and make the podium a few times, she
wrote. ?So in those darkest moments,
when I feel like curling up into a ball
and crying, I think if I had been asked
ten years earlier if I was going to be a
professional cyclist, I would have
laughed.?
After her performance in Australia,
British Cycling asked Laws to take a
sabbatical from her work. She was soon
lined up to take part in the Beijing
Olympics in 2008, which she still managed despite breaking her fibula six
weeks before leaving for China. She
crashed twice during the 120km
women?s road race, coming 35th out of
the 62 competitors who finished.
Nothing in her cycling career seemed
to go smoothly. In 2009 British Cycling
suggested that Laws try cross-country
mountain biking, but a fall downstairs
at home left her with a dislocated
shoulder. At this point, partly perhaps
because she did not have a background
in the sport, British Cycling lost interest
in her. Laws managed, however, to
finish seventh in the Tour of Ard鑓he at
the end of that season and was offered
her first proper professional contract
for 2010. For the next three years she
raced alongside Lizzie Deignan and
Emma Pooley and some of the most
successful teams of the period.
In 2010 Laws supported Pooley to
triumph at the last Tour de l?Aude. ?To
have gone from a successful career outside the sport to riding for Great Britain
at the Olympics in eight months
showed her exceptional talent,? said
Richard Abrahams, a cycling journalist.
?She was the helper, not the leader, a
selfless, very caring person.?
In 2012 Laws, known as Sharon Lost
because she liked to go on adventurous
rides, won the British National Road
Race Championship. Yet she was not
selected for the London Olympics. The
Great Britain coaches preferred a
younger cyclist. ?I didn?t fit the race
?She was the helper, not
the leader, a selfless,
very caring person?
scenario,? she reckoned. ?I was devastated and this disappointment will
remain with me for the rest of my life.
Hard work didn?t seem to pay off.? She
realised then that her last Olympics
opportunity had gone: a serious blow to
an individual whose way of life was not
suited to domesticity and parenthood.
Sharon Nicola Laws was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1974. Her father, Sydney,
worked in the tourist industry and died
when she was six. She was brought up
by her mother, Joy, in Bourton-on-theWater in the Cotswolds and was educated at Pate?s Grammar School in
Cheltenham before taking a first-class
degree in biology at the University of
Nottingham. This was followed by an
MSc in conservation at the University
of London. Her conservation work took
her to Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia
and South Africa, where she became
keen on mountain biking.
Cycling had not initially appealed to
her; indeed, she remembered ?seeing
Sharon Laws wins the women?s British National Road Race Championship in 2012
people in Lycra for the first time and
laughing at them?. Iris Slappendel was
but one team-mate of Laws who was
considerably younger and yet more
experienced. She said: ?Sharon was
warm, open, kind and joyful, but I also
found her a bit weird and fascinating.
This drove many people, especially
sports directors, a bit mad at times. She
always did some extra miles and had a
very fruit and veggie-focused diet. Our
director of sport in Cervelo, the best
team in women?s cycling at the time,
tried to explain to her she had to rest
and put her feet up and eat more carbs.?
Laws?s attention to diet was highlighted when she broke her collarbone
while cycling with Slappendel. ?We
were racing the Giro together and as
soon as Sharon was in the ambulance,
she asked our soigneur for her orange.
First he really thought something was
wrong, or he didn?t understand. But she
kept pressing him. Although we found
the outbreak of war. He was then detained with other aliens and sent to the
Isle of Man. He got away from there
when restrictions were lifted, allowing
enemy aliens to enlist in the Pioneer
Corps. There he found solace in playing
the cello by joining the Pioneer Corps
orchestra that played for the entertainment of their camp and Allied troops.
While working at Trent Park he met
Susan Cohn (obituary April 2, 2013), a
fellow former alien who was working at
Latimer House translating the records
of the captives? conversations. They
were married in June 1946 and had two
sons: Robin Lustig, who became a journalist and broadcaster, and Stephen,
who is a publisher. Both sons survive.
After the war Lustig worked as a
company secretary, which together
with his cello playing in a local orchestra, constituted a contented life. He was
still playing with string quartets until a
few months before his death.
With other Jewish former secret
listeners he had expected the
overheard evidence of atrocities
against the Jews to be brought before
the Nuremberg war crimes tribunals,
but concern over the security of western intelligence sources was considered
an overriding factor with the Cold War
on the horizon.
Fritz Lustig, veteran of the Combined
Services Detailed Interrogation Centre,
was born on March 31, 1919. He died on
December 18, 2017, aged 98
this a strange priority, she had saved
one blood orange for after the race.?
She was involved in an even worse
crash in 2013 at the Argus Road Race in
South Africa. This left her in intensive
care for eight days and hospital for a
further week. Laws suffered multiple
fractures to her ribs, vertebrae and
collarbone. ?I wondered if I would race
again,? she mused. She did, for two
more seasons before an unexpected offer from Podium Ambition persuaded
her to finish her career with a British
team and to start working as a mentor.
In retirement she worked for Voxwomen, a women?s cycling website, and
commentated on the sport. ?She was
hardworking, did her preparation in
huge detail and was insightful,? said
Anthony McCrossan, her fellow commentator. Laws wrote: ?In some ways I
wish I had retired much earlier . . . Continuing to ride my bike always seemed a
better option than going back to an
office job. I may not have gone out on a
high but I probably learnt more about
others and myself in the more challenging years at the end of my career, than
the more successful ones.?
Laws commentated on the British
Cycling National Championships and
filmed a feature about the course on the
Isle of Man with Matt Barbet, the presenter. They rode the entire course,
Laws far from subdued by weeks of
chemotherapy. As it became dark and
with the feature ?in the can?, she told
him: ?I am a bit tired now. I have ridden
150km today.? He was astonished.
Laws triumphed for the third time in
the British Mountain Bike Championships a month before her illness was
diagnosed. ?Knowing my body was
fighting cancer for my last season, and
most likely also in 2015, makes me feel
slightly better about my lack of performance on the road. I didn?t achieve
as much in cycling as I always hoped I
would. I doubt anyone will remember
me for my results but I hope I will be
remembered as a good team-mate and
a friend, which is far more important in
the long term.?
Sharon Laws, cyclist, was born on July 7,
1974. She died from cervical cancer on
December 16, 2017, aged 43
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
57
1G M
Register
Law Report
Births, Marriages and Deaths
Proportionality of minimum
pricing for units of alcohol
I WILL praise you, Lord, among the
nations; I will sing of you among the
peoples. For great is your love, reaching
to the heavens; your faithfulness
reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God,
above the heavens; let your glory be
over all the earth. Psalm 57.9-11 (NIV)
Supreme Court
Published December 28, 2017
Scotch Whisky Association and
Others v Lord Advocate and
Another
Before Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury,
Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Mance,
Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore, Lord Sumption,
Lord Reed and Lord Hodge
[2017] UKSC 76
Judgment November 15, 2017
The Scottish ministers? proposal
to set a minimum price per unit
of alcohol was a proportionate
response to health problems
arising from alcohol misuse in
Scotland and, therefore, compatible with European Union
law.
The Supreme Court so held in
dismissing the appeal of the
petitioners, the Scotch Whisky
Association,
Conf閐閞ation
Europ閑nne des Producteurs
Spiritueux (CEPS) and Comit�
de la Communaut� 閏onomique
europ閑nne des industries et du
commerce des vins, vins aromatises, vins mousseux, vins de
liqueur et autres produits de la
vigne (CEEV) from the decision
of the First Division of the Inner
House of the Court of Session
(Lord Carloway (President)
Lord Menzies and Lord Brodie)
(2016 SLT 1141), following a
reference to the Court of Justice
of the European Union (Case
C-333/14) (The Times December
29, 2015; [2016] 1 WLR 2283), to
dismiss the petitioners? appeal
from the refusal by the Lord
Ordinary (Lord Doherty) (The
Times June 13, 2013; 2013 SLT 77)
of their judicial review petition
to have the Alcohol (Minimum
Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012
declared unlawful.
Mr Aidan O?Neill, QC, and
Ms Morag Ross, QC, for the
petitioners; Mr James Wolffe,
QC, Lord Advocate, Mr Gerry
Moynihan, QC, and Ms Lesley
Irvine for the Lord Advocate;
Mr Philip Simpson, QC, and
Mr John MacGregor for the
Advocate General for Scotland.
Lord Mance, with whom the
other members of the court
agreed, said that the case had to
be examined on the basis of the
guidance given by the Court of
Justice (Case C-333/14) (The
Times December 29, 2015).
It was clear that, from the
outset, concern about the health
and social harms resulting from
extremely heavy drinking in
deprived communities was an
element of targeted thinking
behind the Alcohol (Minimum
Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012.
There were two essentially
incomparable values in issue.
One was the value of health, in
terms of mortality and hospitalisation, coupled moreover with
the evident desirability of
reducing socioeconomic inequalities in their incidence.
The other was the market and
economic impact on producers,
wholesalers and retailers of
alcoholic drinks across the EU.
That comparison was yet
further complicated by the fact
that it was not for any court to
second-guess the value that a
domestic legislator might decide
to put on health. It was ?for the
member states, within the limits
imposed by the Treaty [on the
Functioning of the European
Union], to decide what degree of
protection they wish to assure?:
as the Court of Justice reiterated
in the present case, at para 35,
with reference to prior case law.
The circularity deriving from
the qualification ?within the
limits imposed by the Treaty?
did not help to resolve the
question what limits there
might be on the value that might
be placed on life.
His Lordship doubted that a
court would or should intervene
because it had formed the view
that the number of deaths
or hospitalisations that the
member state sought to avoid
did not ?merit? or was not ?proportionate to? the degree of
EU market interference that
would be involved. Any individual life or well-being was
invaluable
In any assessment that was
appropriate of the general proportionality of the proposed
system of minimum pricing, due
weight had to be given to the
requirement under the 2012 act
that the system be reviewed
after five years, and the ?sunset?
provision that it would expire
after six years unless renewed
by a ministerial decision receiving the positive approval of the
Scottish parliament.
The proposed system was
therefore explicitly provisional,
requiring the authorities to take
stock of its effectiveness after a
period of years and placing the
onus of justifying its continuation in the light of experience
firmly on the Scottish parliament at the end of that period.
The Court of Justice regarded
those provisions as relevant on
the issue of proportionality.
The Lord Ordinary and First
Division had decided that it
could reasonably be concluded,
on an objective examination of
the differing material put before
them and now before the
Supreme Court, that the proposed system of minimum
pricing was proportionate in the
sense required by EU law and
now explained by the Court of
Justice. It was for the Supreme
Court to determine whether
that was a judgment that they
had been entitled to reach. His
Lordship considered that they
had been.
A critical issue was, as the
Lord
Ordinary
indicated,
Court Circular
whether taxation would achieve
the same objectives as minimum pricing.
Although not all of the points
on which he relied for his conclusion on that issue could still
stand, the main point stood, that
taxation would impose an unintended and unacceptable burden
on sectors of the drinking population, whose drinking habits
and health did not represent a
significant problem in societal
terms in the same way as the
drinking habits and health of in
particular the deprived, whose
use and abuse of cheap alcohol
the Scottish parliament and
government wished to target.
In contrast, minimum alcohol
pricing would much better
target the really problematic
drinking to which the government?s objectives had always
been directed and the nature of
which had become even more
clearly identified by the material
more recently available.
As to the general advantages
and values of minimum pricing
for health in relation to the
benefits of free EU trade and
competition, the Scottish parliament and government had, as a
matter of general policy, decided
to put very great weight on combatting alcohol-related mortality and hospitalisation and other
forms of alcohol-related harm.
That was a judgment that was
for them to make, and their right
to make it militated strongly
against intrusive review by a
domestic court. That minimum
pricing would involve a market
distortion, including of EU trade
and competition, was accepted.
However, it was impossible,
even if it would be appropriate to
undertake the exercise at all, to
conclude that that could or
should be regarded as outweighing the health benefits
that were intended by minimum
pricing.
In the overall context of the
Scottish or, on the face of it, any
other market, it appeared that it
would be minor, though it would
hit some producers and exporters to the Scottish market more
than others. Beyond that, the
position was essentially unpredictable.
Submissions that the Scottish
government should have gone
further to predict the unpredictable were not realistic. The
system would be experimental,
but that was a factor catered for
by its provisions for review and
?sunset? clause. It was a significant factor in favour of upholding the proposed minimum
pricing regime.
Solicitors: Brodies LLP, Edinburgh; Scottish Government
Legal Directorate, Edinburgh;
Office of the Advocate General, Edinburgh.
If you would like to
@ add
a personal view or
Kensington Palace
27th December, 2017
Prince Henry of Wales this
morning guest-edited the BBC
Radio 4 Today programme at
Broadcasting House, Portland
Place, London W1.
recollection to a published
obituary, you can send your
contribution by post
to Times Obituaries,
1 London Bridge Street, London
SE1 9GF, or by email to
tributes@thetimes.co.uk
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Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Register
The third instalment of our three-part round-up of notable people who died in 2017 includes leading figures in film, music,
A year in obituaries, from Hugh
ledge of the Afghan people that in the
1990s she was approached by a Saudi,
Osama bin Laden, who requested her
help in procuring engineering equipment. ?He was very polite,? she recalled,
?and very shy.? However, she was too
busy to help. Wrapped in a salwar
kameez with a shawl over her pile of
fluffy hair and childlike face, she sifted
through bazaars and haggled with
mujahidin for books and papers.
pat albeck
Designer for John Lewis and the National
Trust, was born on March 17, 1930. She died
of heart and kidney failure
on September 1, 2017, aged 87
Albeck once reflected happily that
there was probably not a household in
the land that did not contain something
designed by her ? a tea cosy, a curtainpull, a pin-tray or a tea towel. She was
proud to be labelled ?queen of the tea
towel?, producing more than 500
designs for the National Trust from
1967 ? decorative and architectural
pictures with a border, which meant
that they often ended up not drying
crockery, but hanging in frames. She
elevated a domestic article into the
realm of art. And they sold well. ?I
dislike the term ?commercial?,? Albeck
would say, ?but I do like to sell well.?
sabrina
Glamour model and actress once hailed as
a British Marilyn Monroe, was born on
May 19, 1936. She died of respiratory
failure on November 24, 2016, aged 80
Sabrina began receiving more than
1,000 fan letters a week. Personal
appearances often degenerated into
riots; about 4,000 people turned up to a
shop opening in Sheffield, for which her
fee was �0 (the average weekly wage
was �50 at the time). Sabrina constantly fed stories to the press ? her
dress was routinely ?almost torn off? by
fans; Lloyd?s of London insured her bust
for �,000; she held regular public
measurements of her bust and owned a
Cadillac with the number plate ?S41?, in
tribute to her bra size. Unusually for the
time, she acted as her own press agent
and largely crafted her own image.
liliane bettencourt
Businesswoman who inherited the L?Or閍l
cosmetics empire, was born on October 21,
1922. She died of the effects of
dementia on September 21, 2017, aged 94
With an estimated fortune of � billion, according to Forbes magazine,
Bettencourt was the richest woman in
the world. Her massive wealth was the
result of her inheritance of the French
cosmetics giant, L?Or閍l, which had
been founded by her father in 1909.
?When I was little girl I took part in my
father?s business lunches,? she recalled,
and by the time she was 15 she was
working in the family business as an
apprentice, mixing cosmetics and
labelling bottles of shampoo.
tony booth
Much-married actor and Tony Blair?s
father-in-law, was born on October 9, 1931.
He died of complications arising from
Alzheimer?s disease, a stroke and heart
failure on September 25, 2017, aged 85
Shortly before his general election
victory in 1997 Tony Blair had his
father-in-law, Tony Booth, to stay. The
PM-in-waiting came home one evening to hear Booth explaining to a constituent on the phone that he was the
family butler. ?My son-in-law had a
sense of humour failure about it,?
Booth, a socialist of the old school, later
recalled. It was typical of his sense of
mischief. With his bulging eyes and
shock of blond hair he was not handsome in a conventional sense, but he
was a notorious womaniser ? a
?crumpeteer? as he liked to call himself.
veronica, the dowager
countess of lucan
Pictured above, reclusive widow of Lord
Lucan, was born on May 3, 1937. She
was found dead on September 26, 2017,
aged 80
Lady Lucan had five grandchildren, but
met none of them. Nor did she know
the identity of her eldest daughter?s
husband. When her younger daughter
got married she wasn?t invited. ?I wasn?t
hurt at all,? she said. ?It just reaffirmed
my belief that keeping away from my
children was the safest thing to do.
Time has passed and my life has carried
on in a quiet, untroubled manner. I
cannot see any advantage in seeing
them.? She may have been imprisoned
by her past, but she made little attempt
to escape it. To the end Lord Lucan?s
portrait remained in her house and
she still wore her wedding ring. She
remained a source of fascination to the
public. ?They?d stick umbrellas through
the letter box to prise it open, then peep
through,? she said.
fats domino
hugh hefner
Founder of Playboy magazine, was born on
April 9, 1926. He died of natural
causes at his home in Los Angeles on
September 27, 2017, aged 91
Hefner always chose the images himself, from hundreds of slides sent in by
agents and by girls themselves. He liked
to believe that the Playmates were
girl-next-door figures. ?She is never
sophisticated, a girl you cannot really
have. She is a young, healthy, simple
girl,? he said in describing his notion of
the perfect Playboy model. ?We are not
interested in the mysterious, difficult
woman, the femme fatale, who wears
elegant underwear, with lace. The Playboy girl has no lace, no underwear, she
is naked, well-washed with soap and
water, and she is happy.? His determination not to present the girls as bimbos
meant that alongside the naked centrefolds he insisted on pictures of the Playmate fully clothed with syrupy text
about their hobbies, hopes, dreams,
turn-ons and turn-offs.
anthony gordon lennox
Voice coach who helped Kate Middleton
before her wedding, was born on April 29,
1969. He died of metastatic
melanoma on October 7, 2017, aged 48
He was hired by the Middleton family
to embolden the bride to allow ?William Arthur Philip Louis? to trip lightly
off the tongue as a lexicon of love. ?She
spoke softly, but confidently, to deliver
her vows,? wrote The Times. The bigger
challenge, as it turned out, was helping
Kate?s dyslexic 24-year-old brother,
James, deliver the only reading. Middleton had never even read a lesson in a
school chapel. With Gordon Lennox?s
help, he learnt the passage by heart and
delivered the reading in a steady and
authoritative voice. It amused Gordon
Lennox, who was a film buff, that he
undertook this royal commission in
the same year that the Oscar-winning
The King?s Speech, the film about a
speech therapist who ultimately cures
George VI of his stutter, was released in
the UK.
herv� peugnet
(later l間er, then leroux)
Fashion designer who created the
celebrated ?bandage dress?, was born on
May 30, 1957. He died from a ruptured
aneurysm on October 4, 2017, aged 60
L間er would say that his designs were
worn by a woman ?who likes the silhouette of her body to be made the most of
not with drapes and decoration, but
with structure?. They worked best on
women with a shape of their own,
rather than skinny models, he said.
?With them you can reshape, hide what
you want to hide, show what you want
to show.? A reviewer described his
outfits as ?elastic strips of fabric sewn
together to make girdle-tight dresses?,
adding that they showed ?the sexy
mummy look?. L間er acknowledged
the influence of ancient civilisation,
saying: ?Bands belong to history. They
come from Cleopatra.?
nancy hatch dupree
Pictured below, historian and philanthropist
known as the ?grandmother of
Afghanistan?, was born on October 3, 1927.
She died on September 10, 2017, aged 89
Dupree accrued such a wealth of know-
Singer-songwriter who was labelled the
?king? by Elvis Presley, was born on
February 26, 1928. He died on
October 24, 2017, aged 89
With his broad, beaming smile, inherent shyness and uncomplicated
approach to life, Domino cut an
improbable figure as the first significant
star of the rock?n?roll age. Barely 5ft 4in
tall and weighing 15st, he was nobody?s
idea of a conventional matinee pop idol
and there was no hip-wiggling or flamboyant showmanship. ?I didn?t need
none of that. The beat was enough,? he
said. He came up with a seemingly endless production line of classic songs
such as Ain?t That a Shame, Blueberry
Hill, Blue Monday and I?m Walkin?, many
of which he wrote or co-wrote.
antonio carluccio, obe
Restaurateur who taught the British
how to cook Italian, was born on April 19,
1937. He died after a fall at home
on November 8, 2017, aged 80
?There are two ways to make love,? said
Carluccio, the Italian restaurateur and
self-confessed ?mushroom maniac?.
?On a bed of basil or on a bed of truffles.? A gentle, whimsical bear of a man
with a shock of white hair and a penchant for bawdy jokes, Carluccio
started foraging for fungi as a sevenyear-old. After settling in London in
1975, he would rise at dawn to scout for
the best puffballs in Hyde Park and regularly had letters published in The
Times extolling the joys of foraging. His
evangelism for collecting wild food
made the pursuit trendy.
lord hutchinson of
lullington, qc
Criminal barrister whose extraordinary
career included the defence of Christine
Keeler, was born on March 28, 1915. He
died on November 13, 2017, aged 102
Hutchinson revelled in the absurdity
that sometimes accompanies legal
proceedings. Howard Marks, the drug
smuggler, did not deny having imported huge quantities of cannabis ?
enough, he said, for every person in
Britain to get high at the same time ?
Right: Hugh Hefner with
Playboy bunnies in 1960.
Far right, top: Karin Dor
with Sean Connery.
Above, from top:
Liliane Bettencourt;
Fats Domino; Tony Booth;
and Herv� L間er
but claimed he was working undercover for MI6. Hutchinson got Marks
off by convincing the jury that this was
the case. At one point he questioned a
customs officer, who insisted that he
had observed Marks meeting two
Americans crucial to the case through
the keyhole of a room at the Dorchester
Hotel. ?Ah,? Hutchinson countered, ?so
you recognised him by his knees.?
karin dor
German actress who was fed to Blofeld?s
pet piranhas in the Bond film You Only
Live Twice, was born on February 22, 1938.
She died on November 6, 2017,
aged 79, as a result of head
injuries suffered last year
?What?s a nice girl like you doing in a
place like this?? Sean Connery?s Bond
asked with typical insouciance. Lean-
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
59
1G M
Register
politics, science, entertainment, business, sport, food, literature and design
Hefner to Christine Keeler
PRESS ASSOCIATION; REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; ARTHUR EDWARDS/NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTD; GETTY IMAGES; ALAMY
polling day Johnson came into the Toni
& Guy salon in Chelsea, London, seeking a trim. ?He had all that wild and
bushy hair, but after we gave him a great
haircut he was suddenly presentable,?
Mascolo said. ?And he won. I like to
think the haircut helped.? Over the
years Toni & Guy?s clients included
Diana Ross, Gregory Peck, Andrew
Lloyd Webber and members of the
Rolling Stones. ?I?ve even cut Dame
Edna?s hair as Barry Humphries is a
regular customer,? said Mascolo, who
almost to the end of his life put in a fivehour shift at the company?s flagship
salon in Sloane Square most Saturdays.
professor heinz wolff
Emeritus professor at Brunel University
London, inventor and ?telly don?, was born
on April 29, 1928. He died of heart
failure on December 15, 2017, aged 89
was the world?s highest-paid live entertainer, earning $50,000 a night (about
�5,000 today). His official fan club ?
99 per cent of whom were teenage girls
? had the largest membership in pop
history, exceeding those of Elvis Presley and the ?Fab Four?. ?I am grateful
for it, because without them I might be
pumping gas,? he once said ? and yet
he spent most of his adult life attempting to shake off his pin-up image.
ali abdullah saleh
Former president of Yemen known as
?Little Saddam?, was born on March 21,
1942. He was shot dead on
December 4, 2017, aged 75
Saleh once said that ruling Yemen was
like ?dancing on the heads of snakes?.
One of the longest-serving and most
obdurate rulers in the Arab world, he
was reviled by many of his countrymen,
not only for his ruthless attempts to
remain in control until his overthrow in
2011, after more than 30 years in power,
but also for the cynicism of his subsequent opposition to his elected successor, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. He was
a man of limited education. The army
had been his route to power. Once at
the top he used traditional patronage,
political shrewdness and ruthlessness
to remain there in the face of numerous
threats to his rule. His most important
allies were his family.
such as Jeffrey Archer and David
Mellor and was responsible for such
infamously fictitious tabloid headlines
as ?Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster?. He
promoted celebrities from Simon Cowell to OJ Simpson and helped legions of
?kiss and tell? gold-diggers to grab their
15 minutes of fame ? and a handsome
pay cheque. His career was cut short by
the sword he had wielded for so long.
The ?king of PR? found himself on the
front pages, convicted of sexually abusing a number of girls and young women
and sentenced to eight years in prison,
where he suffered a heart attack.
keith chegwin
Pictured below, presenter of children?s
TV whose career was revived by Ricky
Gervais, was born on January 17, 1957. He
died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis on
December 11, 2017, aged 60
heather stewart
Bush pilot known as ?All-weather
Heather?, was born on March 3, 1939.
She died of leukaemia on October 21,
2017, aged 78
In 40 years of flying missionaries, mercenaries, armed rebels and the liberators
of slaves, Stewart developed a few tricks
of the trade, such as stuffing her nostrils
with cotton wool dipped in camphor
when airlifting wounded fighters who
had contracted gangrene. The dangerous and physically uncomfortable war
zones of the Horn of Africa were her
bailiwick. She put herself in the line of
fire as a matter of course to deliver goods
and rescue the afflicted in Somalia and
what was then southern Sudan. When
calculated risk dissolved into a brush
with death, she laughed it off. She honed
her skills by putting down her aircraft on
landing strips so dubious that many
male colleagues refused to use them.
christine keeler
Model and showgirl at the heart of
the Profumo scandal, was born on
February 22, 1942. She died from chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease on
December 4, 2017, aged 75
ing forward to kiss him, Dor freed his
hands; he put the scalpel to good use,
cutting the straps of her dress and whispering in her ear: ?The things I do for
England . . . ? Dor?s performance as a
femme fatale is sublime, yet she was not
what the producers had in mind. ?They
wanted a blonde, blue-eyed, tall German girl and they wound up with me,?
she said. She passed only on grounds of
nationality, for she stood at 5ft 5in, had
brown eyes and was a natural brunette.
unrepentant. On day one he appeared
with an ?X? carved into his forehead as
a protest against the proceedings.
The symbol was copied by his codefendants and supporters, who gathered outside. He punched his attorney
and at one point attempted to attack
the judge, screaming: ?In the name of
Christian justice, someone should cut
your head off.? After adopting the pose
of Christ on the cross earlier in the trial,
he shaved his head, trimmed his beard to
a fork and announced: ?I am the Devil.?
charles manson
Cult leader responsible for the murder
of the pregnant actress Sharon Tate and
eight others, was born on November 12,
1934. He died of natural causes
on November 19, 2017, aged 83
Throughout the trial, which lasted nine
months, Manson was truculent and
david cassidy
Singer and teen idol who made his name
on television as a member of The
Partridge Family, was born on April 12,
1950. He died of liver and kidney failure
on November 21, 2017, aged 67
At his peak in the Seventies, Cassidy
The butterfly chair on which Keeler
posed for a moody black and white
photograph at the height of the
Profumo scandal in 1963 is now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum. Such is
its symbolic status. It was an imitation
Arne Jacobsen and she had not wanted
to sit astride it naked, but the photographer, Lewis Morley, had insisted.
When Keeler saw the result she was
pleased. The artistic shadows protected
her modesty and the photograph came,
in some ways, to define that entire
swinging decade.
After his drinking days had been put
behind him, Chegwin got work in the
Nineties and into the new millennium.
He had more success with Cheggersbedroom.com, his online show that was
transmitted, as the name suggests, from
his bedroom to an audience of hundreds
of thousands. He also toured with his
own show, which he would kick off with
the question: ?Have we got anyone here
who can?t stand the effing sight of me??
max clifford
Publicist who revelled in salacious gossip
and fake news, was born on April 6, 1943.
He died after a heart attack on
December 10, 2017, aged 74
Clifford once boasted that he had
?broken more major stories than any
journalist in Britain?. As a publicist he
was involved in selling the stories that
brought down political heavyweights
With his bow tie and half-moon glasses,
not to mention the wiry tufts of hair
sticking out at alarming angles from the
sides of his domed head, Wolff seemed
determined to look like a mad professor. Combined with his German accent,
it made him a gift to television. Each
week, as the presenter of BBC Two?s
The Great Egg Race, he would invite
teams of cardigan-wearing geeks, from
companies ranging from ICI to Pilkington, the glass maker, to ?zolfe a fiendish
engineering problem? against the clock.
To do so, they made inventive use of
matches, elastic bands, buttons, clothes
pegs and bicycle pumps. Over the seven
years that the programme was on air,
teams created a bicycle that rode on
water, made a hovercraft from a Flymo
lawnmower and took photographs of
an oil rig using a kite.
toni mascolo
Bald Italian-born hairdresser who created
Toni & Guy salons, was born on May 6,
1942. He died after a heart attack
on December 10, 2017, aged 75
Mascolo claimed that his scissors were
behind Boris Johnson winning the
London mayoral election in May 2008,
even if it was by a snip. The night before
suzanna leigh
Actress whose dream of starring alongside
Elvis Presley came true, was born on
July 26, 1945. She died of cancer
on December 11, 2017, aged 72
When Smith was a girl her father told
her that Vivien Leigh was her godmother. Leigh and her husband, Laurence Olivier, lived a few minutes? walk
away in Belgravia. So little Sandra
decided to go round, present herself
and announce that she too was going
to be a film star and what was more she
was going to call herself Suzanna
Leigh. ?She said she had known
my father, though she had been to
hundreds of christenings and didn?t
remember mine,? Suzanna Leigh later
told one interviewer. ?She said she
didn?t mind a bit if I used her name . . .
She said that so many of my dreams
seemed like hers.?
60
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
1G M
Weather
Weather Eye
Paul Simons
Today Cold, with the risk of a few wintry showers in the north, but mainly dry elsewhere. Max 9C (48F), min -5C (23F)
Around Britain
Five days ahead
Key: b=bright, c=cloud, d=drizzle, pc=partly cloudy
du=dull, f=fair, fg=fog, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain,
sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, t=thunder
*=previous day **=data not available
A very changeable spell
of weather, as bands of
rain move across Britain
from the Atlantic
Temperature
Tomorrow
Flood alerts and warnings
Temp C
Rain mm Sun hr*
midday yesterday
24 hrs to 5pm yesterday
Aberdeen
Aberporth
Anglesey
Aviemore
Barnstaple
Bedford
Belfast
Birmingham
Bournemouth
Bridlington
Bristol
Camborne
Cardiff
Edinburgh
Eskdalemuir
Glasgow
Guernsey
Hereford
Herstmonceux
Ipswich
Isle of Man
Isle of Wight
Keswick
Kinloss
Leeds
Lerwick
Leuchars
Lincoln
Liverpool
London
Lyneham
Manchester
Margate
Milford Haven
Newcastle
Nottingham
Orkney
Oxford
Plymouth
Portland
Scilly, St Mary?s
Shoreham
Shrewsbury
Skye
Snowdonia
Southend
Stornoway
Tiree
Whitehaven
Wick
Yeovilton
1
3
5
0
4
2
3
3
4
5
4
6
5
1
2
2
6
4
3
2
5
4
2
2
1
3
3
2
5
3
2
2
2
5
0
3
4
3
6
6
7
2
3
3
4
2
4
5
1
3
5
SN
SH
PC
SN
PC
R
S
PC
C
PC
S
PC
S
S
PC
S
PC
S
R
R
PC
PC
S
SH
PC
PC
S
PC
S
R
C
C
R
PC
PC
PC
PC
PC
PC
PC
PC
R
PC
SH
PC
R
C
PC
S
C
PC
1.4
14.6
1.8
0.0
10.6
29.0
0.2
24.4
13.6
0.6
29.8
10.2
19.6
0.0
0.0
0.2
**
20.4
24.0
19.2
0.6
18.2
0.0
1.8
0.0
1.8
0.0
16.8
0.0
11.8
13.8
0.0
17.0
17.8
0.0
12.8
2.6
15.8
**
7.2
2.6
27.4
6.0
**
4.0
6.4
7.0
0.6
0.0
1.8
13.6
1.1
1.3
2.3
1.6
**
**
3.6
**
2.0
**
2.0
0.0
0.8
4.8
2.6
5.5
**
**
2.3
5.5
0.2
**
**
1.4
**
1.2
4.5
4.4
**
2.2
1.8
4.0
3.7
**
**
3.1
0.0
**
**
**
**
1.6
3.3
**
**
5.2
1.3
2.8
**
**
1.7
An area of cloud and rain, with snow
over northern England and Scotland,
will move acros B i om the
west, cleari
owers in
the aftern
Max 10C,
2
S
S
S
S
B
F
B
B
D
S
B
DU
S
F
S
B
DU
S
R
S
S
B
S
S
F
F
S
F
D
S
F
C
F
S
S
DU
F
S
F
S
S
DU
R
S
F
S
S
9
Slight
3
Moderate
Rough
28 (degrees C)
5
At 17:00 on Wednesday there 11
?ood warnings and 92 ?ood alerts
in England, but no ?ood alerts or
warnings in Wales or Scotland.
For further information and
updates, visit ?ood-warninginformation.service.gov.uk, and for
Scotland www.SEPA.org.uk
0
10
Aberdeen
NORTH
SEA
10
Edinburgh
Glasgow
28
Londonderry
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Rain will affect southern Britain, with
scattered showers elsewhere, heaviest
and most persi
north.
Windy over
with gale
in the nort
Max 13C,
Belfast
Dublin
LLlandudno
77
20
68
15
59
10
50
5
41
0
32
-5
23
-10
14
-15
5
Cork
i h
Norwich
Birmingham
Swansea
Cambridge
3
Oxford
Cardiff
CELTIC
SEA
Channel Islands
Nottingham
2
6
Staying breezy, with scattered
showers, but eastern areas will have
drier spells wit
shine.
Max 10C, m
25
Sheffield
5
Shrewsbury
5
4
Bristol
London
5
8
Southampton
Exeterr
Plymouth
Brighton
9
7
25
Hull
3
ooo
Liverpool
IRISH
SEA
2
12
A dry start with sunny spells, but
another area of cloud and rain will
move in from t
t
ling as sno
at ?rst over
.
Max 12C,
86
Yorkk
Manchester
Galway
New Year's Day
30
2
6
18
4
F
95
Carlisle
1
2
New Year's Eve
C
35
Newcastle
Saturday
13
4
6
-1
8
20
Madeira
9
Madrid
16
Majorca
17
M醠aga
15
Malta
32
Melbourne
Mexico City 18
27
Miami
6
Milan
30
Mombasa
-12
Montreal
2
Moscow
31
Mumbai
1
Munich
27
Nairobi
14
Naples
New Orleans 10
-3
New York
7
Nice
18
Nicosia
1
Oslo
6
Paris
25
Perth
0
Prague
-3
Reykjavik
3
Riga
Rio de Janeiro 28
17
Riyadh
14
Rome
San Francisco 12
28
Santiago
27
S鉶 Paulo
-5
Seoul
30
Seychelles
29
Singapore
St Petersburg 3
3
Stockholm
26
Sydney
22
Tel Aviv
19
Tenerife
8
Tokyo
0
Vancouver
8
Venice
8
Vienna
5
Warsaw
Washington 0
2
Zurich
ney
Orkney
Calm
6
All readings local midday yesterday
17 F
6
B
16 S
22 S
20 S
21 M
30 B
13 S
1
S
18 S
15 F
4
F
22 S
8
R
7
C
9
F
9
F
31 F
20 F
24 B
24 B
23 F
-16 S
5
F
14 S
21 S
25 S
2
S
16 S
12 B
6
R
5
S
15 S
21 R
3
R
22 F
23 S
14 F
21 F
18 C
30 S
21 S
20 B
22 C
14 B
16 S
22 S
e st te
(mph)
3
The world
Alicante
Amsterdam
Athens
Auckland
Bahrain
Bangkok
Barbados
Barcelona
Beijing
Beirut
Belgrade
Berlin
Bermuda
Bordeaux
Brussels
Bucharest
Budapest
Buenos Aires
Cairo
Calcutta
Canberra
Cape Town
Chicago
Copenhagen
Corfu
Delhi
Dubai
Dublin
Faro
Florence
Frankfurt
Geneva
Gibraltar
Harare
Helsinki
Hong Kong
Honolulu
Istanbul
Jerusalem
Johannesburg
Kuala Lumpur
Lanzarote
Las Palmas
Lima
Lisbon
Los Angeles
Luxor
in s e d
34
CHANNEL
General situation: A col s art for
many places, with wintry showers over
Scotland, and rain or sleet over Ireland.
Channel Islands, Cen S and SE Eng,
Wales, London, E Anglia, Cen N and NE
Eng, Lake District: A cold start with
the risk of frost and ice in places, but
most of the area will have a dry day
with patchy cloud and spells of wintry
sunshine. Light to moderate west or
northwesterly winds. Maximum
9C (48F), minimum -2C (28F).
Republic of Ireland, SW Eng: A dry and
ning once early fog clears,
bright morning
but cloud and outbreaks of rain or
sleet will gradually move in from the
west. Light westerly breeze becoming
south or southeasterly over Ireland.
Maximum 8C (46F), minimum 2C (36F).
N Ireland, IoM, NW Eng, Midlands:
Mainly dry through the day with sunny
spells, but a few light wintry showers
are also possible. Light west or
northwesterly winds. Maximum
6C (43F), minimum -2C (28F).
NW and NE Scotland, Cen Highland,
Tides
17
Moray Firth, N Isles: A mixture of
sunny spells and scattered wintry
showers, with snow over higher
ground. Light to moderate north or
northwesterly winds, fresher in the
Northern Isles. Maximum
6C (43F), minimum -5C (23F).
SW Scotland, Borders, Argyll, Glasgow:
The small risk of a wintry shower,
but most places will stay dry with
some sunshine. Light to moderate
northwesterly winds. Maximum
5C (41F), minimum -4C (25F).
Noon today
Tidal predictions.
Heights in metres
1
10
Tuesday
A windy day over much of Britain, with
showers or some longer spells of rain
moving throu h r
t
est.
Max 15C, m
9
14
The Times weather
page is provided
by Weatherquest
Five-star break to Madeira
I N C LU D E S R E T U R N A I R P O RT T R A N S F E R S
Today
Aberdeen
Avonmouth
Belfast
Cardiff
Devonport
Dover
Dublin
Falmouth
Greenock
Harwich
Holyhead
Hull
Leith
Liverpool
London Bridge
Lowestoft
Milford Haven
Morecambe
Newhaven
Newquay
Oban
Penzance
Portsmouth
Shoreham
Southampton
Swansea
Tees
Weymouth
08:51
01:35
06:21
01:36
00:14
06:00
07:03
00:00
07:17
06:30
05:39
00:42
10:00
06:15
08:18
04:05
00:57
06:20
06:01
12:32
00:20
11:55
06:35
06:12
06:06
01:01
11:09
01:18
Ht
3.6
10.5
3.1
9.8
4.5
5.7
3.5
4.2
3.0
3.4
4.7
6.4
4.7
7.7
6.1
2.3
5.5
7.6
5.6
5.9
3.1
4.7
4.2
5.3
4.1
7.5
4.5
1.5
20:59
14:16
18:33
14:15
12:43
18:49
19:10
12:24
19:50
19:15
17:57
13:42
22:18
18:43
21:14
17:37
13:33
18:50
18:36
--:-13:42
--:-19:00
18:49
17:49
13:39
23:20
13:45
Ht
3.8
10.7
3.2
10.1
4.7
5.6
3.7
4.4
3.1
3.5
5.0
6.2
4.8
8.2
6.2
2.3
5.8
8.1
5.5
-3.4
-4.0
5.2
3.8
7.8
4.7
1.5
GH
Synoptic situation
The area of low pressure
which brought rain and snow
to southern Britain yesterday
is now centred close to
Norway and is moving away.
A temporary ridge of high
pressure will cover much of the
UK today, but another area of
low pressure, centred west of
Ireland, is expected to deepen
and move east, pushing rain
into Britain from the Atlantic.
SE V E N NIGH TS FRO M
BEACH
�9
1
Cold front
Warm front
Occluded front
Trough
Highs and lows
Hours of darkness
24hrs to 5pm yesterday
Aberdeen
Belfast
Birmingham
Cardiff
Exeter
Glasgow
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Norwich
Penzance
Shef?eld
Warmest: St Mary?s,
Isles of Scilly, 7.5C
Coldest: Carterhouse, -8.5C
Wettest: Houghton Hall,
Norfolk, 43.0mm
Sunniest: Tibenham, 6.1hrs*
Sun and moon
For Greenwich
Sun rises: 08.05
Sun sets: 15.57
Moon rises: 13.05
Moon sets: 03.08 Fri
Full moon: Jan 2
N
ext year marks the
200th anniversary of the
publication of Mary
Shelley?s Frankenstein;
Or, The Modern
Prometheus ? to give it its full title
? the story of the monster brought
to life by the power of electricity.
Shelley?s creation might have been
inspired by a talk given on this date
in 1814 by Andrew Crosse, a man so
obsessed with atmospheric
electricity that he was called the
?thunder and lightning man?.
Crosse inherited a large estate in
Somerset, where he conducted
experiments for measuring
electricity in the atmosphere. He
gathered electrical charges from the
air using copper wires strung from
poles and tall trees, and connected
the wires to batteries. Under the
right conditions the batteries would
charge and discharge in huge
flashes and explosions that left local
people terrified.
?You can?t go near his cursed
house at night without danger of
your life; them as have been there
have seen devils, all surrounded by
lightning, dancing on the wires that
he has put up round his grounds,?
said one local resident.
Elsewhere, Crosse was
something of a celebrity. On
December 28, 1814, Shelley went to
a talk given by Crosse in London,
where he gave a report of how he
had created explosive fires using
electricity in the air, rather like
Prometheus in Greek mythology
who stole fire from the gods and
gave it to mankind.
There were also hints that
electricity could heal the sick, so
perhaps for Shelley it was not such a
great leap in imagination to create
a monster using electricity.
Crosse was mired in controversy
in 1836 when newspapers suggested
that he had created a new species
of insect using electricity. Crosse
vehemently denied this ? the
creatures were probably mites that
had crawled out of his kitchen and
contaminated his equipment ? but
he was accused of blasphemy and
received death threats. This
episode was, however, long after
Frankenstein had been published.
16:01-08:18
16:34-08:16
16:30-07:48
16:40-07:48
16:45-07:45
16:19-08:17
16:29-07:57
16:28-07:36
16:26-07:55
16:14-08:01
16:16-07:36
16:56-07:51
16:23-07:51
he Quintinha de S鉶 Jo鉶 is the perfect example of a actual typical Madeiran
Quinta. The illustrious ?ve star hotel has 42 rooms and keeps its essence full of
history that can be sensed as one ambles through its gardens and grand public areas.
T
PER PERSON
Staying at the five-star Quintinha
Sao Joao Hotel
Selected departures January, April and May, 2018.
Half board basis
Call 0330 160 8457 and quote KL831
Upgrade to the � la carte option
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Book now from just a � pp deposit, for departures February 1, 2018 to October 31, 2018. Final balance is due 4 weeks before travel with equal monthly instalments. Prices based on two people sharing standard double/twin accommodation. All holidays subject to availability. Operated by, and your resulting contract will be with with Broadway
Travel LTD, 5th Floor, Jansel House, Hitchin Road, Luton, LU2 7XH. ATOL protected. KL831.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
2G M
61
RM
Sport
Mullins saddles treble and
has Min demoted to second
INPHO/TOMMY DICKSON
Racing
Leicester
12.55 Master Of Verse 2.30 Harefield
1.25 The Sweeney
3.05 Three Ways
1.55 Bekkensfirth
3.40 Wind Place And Sho
Thunderer: 1.25 Victarion. 2.30 Arthington (nap).
Going: soft, heavy in places (chase course);
heavy (hurdles) 8am inspection
Racing UK
12.55
Handicap Chase
(�498: 1m 7f 201y) (4)
1 -R465 MASTER OF VERSE 122 (H,D) Miss V Williams 8-11-12
C Deutsch (3)
T Scudamore
2 -1406 ACCORD 20 D Bridgwater 7-11-12
L Aspell
3 10-P4 GREGARIOUS 20 (H,T,D) Mrs L Wadham 4-11-1
C Poste
4 1123- MYROUNDORURS 521 (H,D) R Dickin 7-10-13
6-4 Gregarious, 2-1 Master Of Verse, 7-2 Accord, 13-2 Myroundorurs.
Rob Wright?s choice: Master Of Verse, fair in Ireland, can
make a winning start for his new yard Danger: Gregarious
1.25
Maiden Hurdle
(�899: 2m 4f 110y) (13)
500 BRONZALLURE 26 (T) O Greenall 4-11-0
H Skelton
1
W Hutchinson
2 220-2 CRIQ ROCK 241 (BF) A King 6-11-0
4-50 DASSETT GOLD 27 P Webber 4-11-0
G Sheehan
3
06 EURATO 13 (P) S Gollings 7-11-0
T Scudamore
4
C O'Farrell
5 421/ KILFILUM CROSS 676P K Bailey 6-11-0
3-64 LESKINFERE 26 O Greenall 4-11-0
I Popham
6
P2-00
LISSYCASEY 31 Sheila Lewis 4-11-0
R Williams (3)
7
S Bowen
8 63-63 MON ELDORADO 50 (H) C Williams 5-11-0
40 PANDINUS IMPERATOR 66F M Smith 4-11-0 N Scholfield
9
L Aspell
10 3-63 THE SWEENEY 19 Miss E Lavelle 5-11-0
T O'Brien
11 442- VICTARION 285 P Hobbs 5-11-0
12 1-00 WESTERN MORNING 29 (T) O Greenall 4-11-0 D England
13 31/P HAYLEY BELLE 11 (T) M Bradstock 6-10-7 N De Boinville
5-2 Criq Rock, 11-4 The Sweeney, 7-2 Victarion, 4-1 Mon Eldorado, 10-1
Kilfilum Cross, 20-1 Hayley Belle, 25-1 Leskinfere, 33-1 others.
Wright choice: The Sweeney improved when second at
Chepstow and is unexposed Dangers: Victarion, Criq Rock
Stuart Fraser Tennis Writer
Elliott stable, was sent off as the evenmoney favourite, but he swerved when
coming to the third-last flight, crashing
through the wing of the hurdle.
That left three Mullins runners to
fight out the finish, with Sharjah and
Real Steel pulling clear of Whiskey
Sour coming to the last. The leading
pair both fell in unison, however,
leaving 9-1 shot Whiskey Sour to claim
an unlikely success.
Min was pushed out to 4-1 by William
Hill for the Queen Mother Champion
Chase at Cheltenham in March after
his below-par effort but Politologue
strengthened his claims for the same
race with another smooth success at
Kempton Park.
Politologue goes from strength to
strength and followed up his Tingle
Creek Chase success with ease in the
Unibet Desert Orchid Chase, albeit his
task was rendered simpler by the
eighth-fence fall of main danger
Special Tiara.
Paul Nicholls? progressive six-yearold is now a general 7-2 second
favourite, behind Altior, to give his
trainer a sixth win in the two-mile
championship at Cheltenham.
1.55
3.40
1.05
Sharjah, left, and Real Steel suffered heavy falls at Leopardstown, leaving Whiskey
Sour to claim the victory. Remarkably both riders and horses were unscathed
Handicap Chase
(�,512: 2m 4f 45y) (8)
Rob Wright
Tennis
Andy Murray arrived in Abu Dhabi this
morning to step up his pre-season preparations. As part of an arrangement
with the Mubadala World Tennis
Championships exhibition event, the
Briton will practise with some of the
competitors before flying on to Australia on Saturday.
Murray?s departure from the UK last
night makes for positive news as he
continues his long recovery from
a hip injury, but it is still not
certain that he will be
ready to make his scheduled comeback at the
Brisbane International
next week. A decision
will be taken after his
practice sessions in the
Middle East.
Over the next 48 hourss
he
Murray, right, will have the
lf by
opportunity to test himself
training with Novak Djokovic,
vin Anderson
Dominic Thiem and Kevin
Anderson.
The 30-year-old will not, however, take
part in any matches in the six-man
tournament.
Even if Murray does not feel he is fit
enough to return in Brisbane, he is still
likely to make the journey down under
to try to compete at the Australian
Open. Warm-up options for the first
grand slam of the year, which begins on
January 15, include the Sydney International and the Kooyong Classic
exhibition in Melbourne.
Rob Wright Racing Editor
The Coral Welsh National was postponed yesterday but there was no
shortage of thrills and spills over jumps
on both sides of the Irish Sea, notably
on a high-class card at Leopardstown.
Willie Mullins, who so often dominates
this meeting, will have left with mixed
feelings despite saddling a treble.
Mullins would have been confident
of landing the grade one Paddy?s
Rewards Club Chase with 2-7 favourite
Min. His charge was indeed first past
the post but only after twice badly
hampering British raider Simply Ned
on the run-in.
The winning margin was just half a
length and there was little doubt that
the Nicky Richards-trained runner,
sent off at 16-1, would be awarded the
race by the stewards.
Simply Ned, a ten-year-old, had
made the frame in this race for the past
two years but had never won at the
highest level and his trainer was understandably thrilled. ?The other horse
gave him a couple of bumps and the
second was a fairly hefty one,? Richards
said. ?I?d say justice has been done.?
Mullins enjoyed better fortune in the
other grade one race on the card, the
Paddy Power Future Champions
Novice Hurdle, albeit perhaps not with
the runner that he had expected in a
chaotic finish.
Mengli Khan, from the Gordon
Murray hopes Abu Dhabi
is first step to Melbourne
Handicap Hurdle
(�495: 1m 7f 113y) (8)
Handicap Chase
1
5P-55 LITTLE JON 26 (P,D) N Twiston-Davies 9-11-12
S Twiston-Davies
012/6 BEKKENSFIRTH 27 (CD) D Skelton 8-11-12
H Skelton
-234P VOLT FACE 5 (T) C Longsdon 8-11-12
Paul O'Brien (5)
P0-00 ALLEE BLEUE 44 (C,D) P Hobbs 7-11-11
T O'Brien
5-244 CROWN HILL 32 (C,D) J Farrelly 7-11-8
B Powell
P0-65 FERGAL MAEL DUIN 17 (T,B,D) C Tizzard 9-11-5 H Cobden
-40UP GO WEST YOUNG MAN 5 (D) H Daly 9-11-4
Mr H Nugent (7)
Kevin Jones (5)
8 23-61 JARLATH 48 (D) J S Mullins 6-11-2
4-1 Bekkensfirth, Crown Hill, 5-1 Jarlath, Volt Face, 6-1 Allee Bleue, 13-2 Little
Jon, 7-1 Fergal Mael Duin, 20-1 Go West Young Man.
1
2
3
4
5
6
-2323 CHIEFTAIN'S CHOICE 149 (D) K Frost 8-11-12
M Bastyan (5)
-4056 DARTAGNAN LE DUN A Hales 4-11-7
H Bannister
212-6 MORIANOUR 35 E Williams 6-11-1
A Wedge
0611- BILLY HICKS 280 (H,D) S Drinkwater 6-11-1
D England
60-42 WIND PLACE AND SHO 25 J Eustace 5-10-12
J Quinlan
143-5 CATCHIN TIME 25 (T,CD) Miss L Hurley 9-10-11
C Hammond (7)
B Poste
7 2-340 ALPHA INDI 27 H J Evans 6-10-7
04640
CAVIAR
D'ALLEN
14
C
Williams
5-10-4
A P Heskin
8
7-4 Wind Place And Sho, 7-2 Billy Hicks, 9-2 Chieftain's Choice, 8-1 Catchin
Time, 10-1 Caviar D'Allen, Dartagnan Le Dun, 11-1 Morianour, 20-1 Alpha Indi.
W Kennedy
1 54-06 AMUSE ME 25 (T,P,D) J Moffatt 11-11-12
H Brooke
2 -5160 BETANCOURT 47 (D) J Ewart 7-11-11
3 UPP55 CUP OF AMBITION 21 (T,P) M Keighley 5-11-9 H Stock (7)
F O'Toole (5)
4 04-43 PADDLING 9 M D Hammond 6-11-2
D Cook
5 3P5-0 FRANKIE BALLOU 9 (H) Miss J Foster 8-11-1
6 00033 MR WITMORE 36 (B) K Johnson 7-10-6 Mr K Yeoman (7)
7 -P304 UNDER THE RED SKY 32 (B) K Johnson 10-10-4
T Dowson (3)
8 0/2-0 LOST IN NEWYORK 21 N Kent 10-10-1 T Broughton (10)
9 -440P REVERSE THE CHARGE 194 (P) Mrs J Walton 10-10-0
Miss A Waugh (7)
Wright choice: Bekkensfirth should be sharper for a recent
outing over hurdles
Dangers: Little Jon, Jarlath
Wright choice: Wind Place And Sho was given plenty to do
when second here Dangers: Chieftain?s Choice, Alpha Indi
100-30 Mr Witmore, 4-1 Amuse Me, 5-1 Frankie Ballou, Paddling, 13-2 Cup Of
Ambition, 9-1 Reverse The Charge, 10-1 Betancourt, 12-1 others.
Novices' Hurdle
1.35
Catterick
(�498: 1m 7f 113y) (7)
1 11221 ARTHINGTON 21 (CD) J S Mullins 4-11-8 Kevin Jones (5)
0-1 DESTRIER 38 (CD) D Skelton 4-11-4
H Skelton
2
W Hutchinson
3 24-41 HAREFIELD 36 (D) A King 4-11-4
2-5 CLASH OF D TITANS 26 W Greatrex 4-10-12
G Sheehan
4
B Poste
5 -1000 JOHNNY YUMA 21 K Price 4-10-12
00 VOODOO DOLL 28 E Williams 4-10-12
A Wedge
6
U WAHWONAISA 40 (P) D Bridgwater 5-10-12
T Cannon
7
15-8 Arthington, 5-2 Harefield, 3-1 Destrier, 9-2 Clash Of D Titans, 22-1
Voodoo Doll, 25-1 Wahwonaisa, 50-1 Johnny Yuma.
Wright choice: Harefield had plenty in hand when winning
at Warwick and can follow up
Danger: Arthington
12.30 Swashbuckle
2.05 Lake Field
1.05 Cup Of Ambition 2.40 Captain Mowbray
1.35 Roman Numeral 3.15 Secret Passenger
Going: good to soft, good in places Racing UK
8am inspection
12.30 Maiden Hurdle
(�899: 1m 7f 156y) (12)
0/63- BIG THUNDER 414 M D Hammond 7-11-6
F O'Toole (5)
65 DUTCH ARTIST 20 (T) Alan Brown 5-11-6
C King
26-20 ENOLA GAY 54 Miss V Williams 4-11-6
A Coleman
000 FROZON 12 H Bethell 4-11-6
J England
5605 GANG WARFARE 42 (P) A Dunn 6-11-6
R McLernon
00 GRECIAN KING 11 (H) L Morgan 4-11-6
R Day (3)
LORD FRANKLIN 67F Andrew Crook 8-11-6
H Brooke
SWASHBUCKLE 75F D McCain 4-11-6
W Kennedy
5 TAB HOGARTH 20 K Slack 4-11-6
Colm McCormack (3)
22-32 TEESCOMPONENTS LAD 36 Gillian Boanas 4-11-6 J Reveley
4 YOUNG TOM 34 Mrs S Smith 4-11-6
D Cook
6 MILLIE THE MINX 53 Mrs D Sayer 3-10-0
S W Quinlan
P Brennan
1 /12-1 KNOCKADERRY FLYER 237 F O'Brien 8-11-5
N De Boinville
2 10-P2 CULTIVATOR 38 (D) N Henderson 6-11-0
Mr J Martin (7)
3 0044- MILITARIAN 298 A Martin 7-11-0
H Cobden
4 216-F SILVERHOW 10 C Tizzard 6-11-0
G Sheehan
5 10-22 THREE WAYS 29 (T,P) J Snowden 6-11-0
5-2 Cultivator, 11-4 Three Ways, 7-2 Knockaderry Flyer, 5-1 Militarian, 11-2
Silverhow.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Wright choice: Three Ways drops in trip after a good
second to Captain Chaos at Wetherby Danger: Cultivator
2-1 Enola Gay, 11-4 Swashbuckle, 7-2 Teescomponents Lad, 7-1 Big Thunder,
8-1 Young Tom, 20-1 Tab Hogarth, 25-1 Dutch Artist, 33-1 others.
3.05
Novices' Chase
(�596: 2m 4f 45y) (5)
Selling Handicap Hurdle
(�599: 1m 7f 156y) (13)
Rob Wright
2.05
(�249: 2m 3f 51y) (9)
2
3
4
5
6
7
2.30
Initially Murray had hoped to travel
to Australia before Christmas, gaining
an advantage on his rivals with such an
early arrival. It is understood that his
recent Miami training block was not
without difficulties.
Brisbane
tournament
officials
were confident yesterday that Murray
will turn up to start his season there,
and they are willing to delay his first
match until next Thursday. This is possible because Murray gets a first-round
bye as one of the top four seeds.
Another top player battling
in
with injury
is Rafael Nadal,
who pulled out of the Brisban International last
bane
ni
night
due to his lingerin knee problems. The
ing
S
Spaniard
is still hoping
to recover in time to
p
play
at the Australian
O
Open.
?I am sorry to
ann
announce
I won?t be
comi to Brisbane,? Nadal
coming
said. ?I am not ready after last
year?s long season and the late
prepa
start of my preparation.?
A Murray no-show in Brisbane could
have a significant impact on the seedings for the Australian Open. The Scot
could drop outside the top 16 seeds,
raising the possibility of a meeting with
Djokovic as early as the third round in
Melbourne. Djokovic will play his first
match since his Wimbledon quarterfinal retirement with an elbow problem
in July when he takes to the court in
Abu Dhabi tomorrow to play Roberto
Bautista Agut or Andrey Rublev.
Mr J Wright (7)
1 P642- SKIPPING ON 396P L Morgan 8-12-6
Doubtful
2 -5F46 DISCOVERIE 9 (H,B,C,D) K Slack 9-12-6
L Edwards
3 4U004 MR MAFIA 13 A Carroll 8-11-12
Ryan Winks (5)
4 -0006 HARTSIDE 30 (T,V,CD) P Winks 8-11-8
5 P-000 CALYPSO DELEGATOR 34 (P) M D Hammond 4-11-7
F O'Toole (5)
6 5P000 MILLEN DOLLAR MAN 39 (P) A Dunn 8-11-6 J Bowen (5)
T Kelly
7 263FF ROMAN NUMERAL 34 (D) D Thompson 9-11-0
J Kington (3)
8 306/P FILLYDELPHIA 12F P Holmes 6-10-12
9 5P0PP ROCK N'STONES 23 (T,P) Gillian Boanas 6-10-10
C Bewley (3)
10 45060 CLAUDE CARTER 37 (P,D) A Whillans 13-10-10 K Edgar (3)
J Colliver
11 0P2P- STRAIT RUN 308 (T) M D Hammond 6-10-8
12 665-0 SHALAMZAR 9 (T,P) M D Hammond 8-10-7
Miss Becky Smith (7)
B Hughes
13 P-600 COPT HILL 186 (P) J Brooke 9-10-1
7-2 Mr Mafia, 11-2 Claude Carter, 6-1 Hartside, 15-2 Roman Numeral,
Shalamzar, 8-1 Skipping On, 9-1 Millen Dollar Man, 11-1 others.
Blinkered first time: Catterick 1.05 Under The Red Sky.
Lingfield Park 12.45 El Torito. 1.45 Aristocles. 2.55
Amadeus. 3.30 Whirl Me Round.
Novices' Limited Handicap
Chase (�256: 1m 7f 145y) (5)
1 U31U4 VALGOR DU RONCERAY 34 (D) M D Hammond 8-11-10
F O'Toole (5)
1-253 RAMONEX 34 (D) R Hobson 6-11-8
D Cook
5-041 MIDDLEBROW 34 (T,C) D McCain 6-10-12
W Kennedy
0-222 MANWELL 13 (T,D) S England 7-10-8
J England
00-21 LAKE FIELD 8 (D) K Bailey 8-10-6
D Bass
2
3
4
5
4-7 Lake Field, 4-1 Middlebrow, 5-1 Manwell, 12-1 Ramonex, 20-1 Valgor Du
Ronceray.
2.40
Handicap Chase
(�630: 3m 1f 54y) (9)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
22V14 GOLDEN INVESTMENT 25 (H,T,BF) D McCain 8-12-0
W Kennedy
5PP00 COTTERSROCK 39 (T,B) M Keighley 7-11-12
H Stock (7)
3F251 CAPTAIN MOWBRAY 19 (P) R Menzies 6-11-10
T Kelly
-111P HATTONS HILL 36 (P,BF) H Hogarth 8-11-7 J Hamilton (3)
12P-P BALLYTHOMAS 11 D Thompson 10-11-5
H Brooke
4/432 RED DANAHER 30 Mrs S Smith 10-10-9
D Cook
2-001 ATTENTION PLEASE 26 (P,D) Mrs R Dobbin 7-10-3
R Day (3)
0646P NICKI'S NIPPER 10 (P,D) S Waugh 9-10-3
C Bewley (3)
46204 MORE MADNESS 7 (P) J Brooke 10-10-2
B Hughes
11-4 Cottersrock, 7-2 Golden Investment, 9-2 Red Danaher, 6-1 Attention
Please, 13-2 Captain Mowbray, 9-1 Hattons Hill, 16-1 others.
3.15
Conditional Jockeys'
Handicap Hurdle
(�899: 3m 1f 71y) (7)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
44-13 DURBANVILLE 19 J Ewart 5-12-2
J Bowen
51-P5 MCVICAR 20 (P) John Davies 8-11-12
R Day
-6460 OREGON GOLD 25 N Kent 4-11-12
T Broughton (10)
121-0 JOSEPH MERCER 19 (V) Miss T Jackson 10-11-10
S Coltherd
31311 TRIOPAS 7 T Lacey 5-11-9
C Gethings
0-603 SECRET PASSENGER 30 B Ellison 4-11-7
K Wood (3)
2P2-2 AMERICAN LIFE 21 (T,V,D) O Greenall 10-11-1
Ross Turner (8)
11-10 Triopas, 9-2 Durbanville, 11-2 Secret Passenger, 8-1 American Life, 11-1
Mcvicar, 14-1 Joseph Mercer, 20-1 Oregon Gold.
Yesterday?s racing results
Kempton Park
Going: soft
12.45 (2m hdle) 1, Redicean (Wayne
Hutchinson, 11-8 fav); 2, Haulani (7-2); 3, King
Cnut (50-1). 6 ran. NR: Kings Inn, Ray?s The
Money. 10l, 57l. A King.
1.20 (2m ch) 1, Cyrname (Sean Bowen, 7-4); 2,
Shantou Rock (6-4 fav); 3, Tommy Silver (9-4).
4 ran. NR: The Unit. 7l, Kl. P Nicholls.
1.55 (3m 110yd hdle) 1, Midnight Tune (Aidan
Coleman, 2-1 fav); 2, Rons Dream (5-1); 3, Loves
Destination (16-1). 6 ran. 4l, 7l.
A Honeyball.
2.30 (2m ch) 1, Politologue (Sam Twiston-
Davies, 8-15 fav); 2, Vaniteux (25-1); 3, Forest
Bihan (6-1). 4 ran. 13l, 14l. P Nicholls.
3.05 (3m ch) 1, Tintern Theatre (Sam TwistonDavies, 7-2); 2, Pilgrims Bay (9-2); 3, Brandon
Hill (9-4 fav). 7 ran. NR: Remind Me Later.
2Ol, Kl. N Twiston-Davies.
3.40 (2m hdle) 1, Kayf Grace (Nico de Boinville,
11-4 fav); 2, Eddiemaurice (7-1); 3, Azzerti
(5-1). 10 ran. NR: Demon D?Aunou, Dexcite,
Gwafa, Templier. 1Kl, 8l. N Henderson.
Placepot: �2.40.
Quadpot: �.50.
Wetherby
Going: soft (good to soft in places)
12.30 (2m hdle) 1, Lisdoonvarna Lad (B Hughes,
8-1); 2, Quest For Life (14-1); 3, Some Reign
(11-4 fav). 12 ran. NR: Lord Franklin, Sliding
Doors. 11l, 2Nl. C Longsdon.
1.00 (3m 45yd ch) 1, Bordeaux Bill (Danny Cook,
4-5 fav); 2, Sharp Response (6-5); 3, Dark Valley
(20-1). NR: Three Ways, Thumb Stone Blues.
9l, 34l. B Ellison.
1.30 (2m hdle) 1, Albert?s Back (B Hughes, 5-4
fav); 2, Turning Gold (12-1); 3, Cornerstone Lad
(3-1). 6 ran. 11l, 8l. M W Easterby.
2.05 (1m 7f 36yd ch) 1, Just Cameron (Joe
Colliver, 10-1); 2, Duke Of Navan (9-2); 3, Cyrus
Darius (2-1 fav). 6 ran. NR: Top Gamble. 1Ol, 8l.
Micky Hammond.
2.40 (3m 45yd ch) 1, Sheneededtherun (J
Kington, 20-1); 2, Milly Baloo (5-2); 3, Same
Circus (10-11 fav). 5 ran. Ol, 1l. M Scudamore.
3.15 (3m 26yd hdle) 1, Final Fling (A Nicol,
10-1); 2, Tickanrun (6-1); 3, Flemerina (5-1 jtfav); 4, Houndscourt (33-1). 16 ran.
NR: Gentleman James. 1Ol, 7l. Mrs R Dobbin.
Placepot: �3.50.
Quadpot: �.30.
Wolverhampton
Going: standard
1.45 (5f) 1, Swendab (Rossa Ryan, 9-2); 2, Run
With Pride (7-2 jt-fav); 3, Everkyllachy (13-2). 10
ran. NR: Absolutely Awesome. Nk, Kl. J O?Shea.
2.15 (6f) 1, Hello Brigette (D C Costello, 7-2); 2,
Sugar Coating (13-8 jt-fav); 3, Ghepardo (13-8
jt-fav). 7 ran. NR: Falcon?s Vision, Lulu Star,
Queen Of Desire, Wide Acclaim. 4l, 1Ol.
M O?Callaghan (Ire).
2.45 (6f) 1, Angel Of The South (R Winston,
9-2); 2, I Was Only Joking (6-1); 3, Vodka Pigeon
(20-1). 8 ran. NR: Alesandra, Miss Mo Brown
Bear, Musical Theatre. 2Nl, 8l. D Ivory.
3.25 (1m) 1, Antonian (R Havlin, 6-5 fav); 2,
Danzay (11-4); 3, Father Ailbe (33-1). 10 ran.
NR: Fronsac, Kaser, Suprematism. 2Kl, 1l.
J Gosden.
3.55 (1m) 1, Stellar Surprise (P McDonald, 5-2
fav); 2, Star Quality (11-2); 3, Carolinae (9-2). 6
ran. NR: Domitilla. Sh hd, 1Kl. S Williams.
4.25 (1m 1f 104yd) 1, Maratha (P McDonald, 9-4
fav); 2, Perfect Soldier (7-2); 3, First Up (16-1).
7 ran. NR: Cricklewood Green. 2l, hd. S Williams.
4.55 (6f) 1, Jorvik Prince (Gemma Tutty, 13-8
fav); 2, Tasaaboq (9-2); 3, Jessie Allan (9-2). 11
ran. NR: Captain Scooby, Dalness Express. 1Kl,
sh hd. Mrs K Tutty.
5.25 (1m 5f 219yd) 1, Willyegolassiego (D C
Costello, 18-1); 2, Bamako Du Chatelet (6-4
fav); 3, Raashdy (4-1). 11 ran. NR: Best
Example, Gabrial The Terror. 1Kl, 3Ol.
N Mulholland.
Placepot: �7.40.
Quadpot: �.20.
6 Chepstow abandoned - course waterlogged.
62
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Sport
Inside story of
how Lions beat
the All Blacks
eye witness
the second lions test
In a series on the sporting
highlights of 2017, key figures
tell Owen Slot about the night
Warren Gatland?s team
bounced back in Wellington
O
n Saturday July 1, the British & Irish
Lions needed to beat the All Blacks
in Wellington to save the series.
They were 1-0 down having been
well beaten in Auckland the week
before and there was barely a critic or
commentator who believed that they could turn
it around.
Paul Stridgeon, Lions head of strength and
conditioning, a key motivator to the team: ?After
the first Test, the whole week was this
horrendous pressure. Apart from maybe the
third Test against Australia four years before, I
had never felt pressure like that. We knew that if
we lost that game, the tour overall was
horrendous, the last week would be horrendous.
Everything that week, all the conversations,
every session was just edgy. It was pressure
all week. We all knew it was do or die.?
Anthony Watson, Lions Test wing: ?I
honestly felt throughout that we had
the squad, we had the players to go
out there and do a job. Losing the
first Test didn?t really affect our
confidence. It wasn?t really about
what had happened the week
before.?
Gavin Hastings, Lions
captain in New Zealand
Ze
in 1993, who was in New Zealand
for all
three Tests: ?I related the situation to 24
years earlier when we?d been 1-0 down
too, in exactly the same position. You
just want to keep the whole tour alive.?
Stridgeon: ?I remember saying to
Faz [assistant coach Andy Farrell], ?What
do we do if we lose?? Part of my job is
working out where the lads are
[mentally] after a game, so if you win
well, Monday is easier, if you lose you
have to get them back up. I said to
Faz, ?If we lose this one, what do
you do then?? That was my fear;
total fear. What would we do
Lingfield Park
Rob Wright
11.40 Ode To Glory
1.45 Island Brave
12.10 The Special One 2.20 Paradise Lake
(nap) 2.55 Corazon Espinado
(nb)
12.45 Captain Pugwash
1.15 Chingachgook
3.30 Juan Horsepower
Going: standard
At The Races
Draw: 5f-1m, low numbers best
11.40
Apprentice Selling Stakes
when we got up on Sunday? It was the biggest
pressure ever.?
Hastings: ?During this tour, I did a few
speaking events and my whole theme was, ?The
Lions are coming to get you.? I was absolutely
relentless over the three weeks, I kept my line; I
refused to back down. Warren Gatland is not
everyone?s cup of tea, but he is a wily old fox
and, my, does he know how to prepare a
competitive side. I was giving these talks and the
Kiwis would be chuckling away. They were so
blinkered in their undying support.?
Grant Fox, former World Cup-winning All
Black, now an All Blacks selector: ?We knew
that the Lions would respond. We said all the
way through that they were a good side. They
didn?t start the tour well and, typically, some of
our media and some of our fanbase were critical
and a lot of that criticism wasn?t justified.?
Dan Cole, prop in the Lions midweek team:
?The midweekers, we played on the Tuesday
night and we knew then
that we were pretty
m
much
done. We knew we
h to support the Test
had
team but at the same
t
time,
you don?t want to be
i the way. We had a meal
in
out on the Thursday. We
a
asked
the hotel concierge
t book a place for 18 of us,
to
p
private
and out of the way.
W ended up at the back of a
We
garden shed in
t back of an Italian
the
restaurant in Wellington.
V
Very
glamorous.?
Miles Harrison, Sky
commentator: ?The night
b
before
I?d dashed into a hotel
t meet a mate, Paul, who
to
asked me, ?What do you think
i going to happen tomorrow??
is
I my job, you can?t overthink it,
In
y have to have a clear mind, a
you
b
blank
sheet of paper. But this guy
l
looked
me straight in the eye and
sa ?Lions by three, Farrell will kick it.? ?
said,
T match day. It was raining almost all day,
Test
w
which
was not what the All Blacks wanted. From
the start, the game was evenly matched.
Stridgeon: ?There were so many Lions fans.
They don?t realise how big it is for us. Driving to
the ground, from the hotel to the ground, all you
could see was Lions fans. I had my headphones
on to stop me getting too excited. I took them off
12.10
Handicap
(�264: 7f 1y) (10)
1 (2) 6106- BOBBY BENTON 374 (H,V,C,D) S Best 6-9-9 T J Murphy
briefly and you could hear them everywhere, it
was mental. When we got there, you could see
that the players were right. I said to Gats
[Warren Gatland], ?We are on, today.? There was
an eerie silence in the dressing room; it was a
good silence. Sometimes when a dressing room
is quiet, you think, ?Oh shit.? This time it was
quiet because everyone was so switched on.?
Fox: ?We were well prepared for what was
going to come at us. We got the response from
the Lions we anticipated, particularly
defensively where they tightened up. We had
plans to attack in other areas, but the wet
weather made that more challenging.?
24th minute, the score is 3-3. Sonny Bill Williams is
red-carded for a foul tackle on Watson.
Watson: ?I?d gone back to pick up the ball. I
remember Waisake Naholo was flying up to try
and get me. I thought, ?Let me try and get round
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Rossa Ryan (7)
(5) 00006 MUHAJJAL 22 (T) G Peckham 3-9-7
H Crouch (3)
(1) -5000 GERMAN WHIP 22 (D) G L Moore 4-9-6
C Shepherd (3)
(4) 46330 VIOLET'S LADS 15 B Johnson 3-9-4
L Morris
(10) 05600 SEA TEA DEA 13 (CD) A Carson 3-9-4
W Cox (5)
(3) -4600 FROZEN LAKE 15 (D) John O'Shea 5-9-3
Fran Berry
(8) 0-030 SEA OF HOPE 82 (BF) H Candy 4-9-2
(7) 51504 MASQUERADE BLING 15 (D) N Mulholland 3-9-1
R Hornby
9 (6) 16143 THE SPECIAL ONE 22 (T,D) Ali Stronge 4-9-1
T Marquand
R Tate
10 (9) 50304 SMART MOVER 125 (P,D) Mrs N Evans 4-8-7
12.45
100-30 Sea Of Hope, 4-1 The Special One, 11-2 Violet's Lads, 6-1 German Whip,
7-1 Masquerade Bling, 15-2 Muhajjal, 10-1 Bobby Benton, 14-1 others.
4-1 Captain Pugwash, 5-1 Termsnconditions, Waqt, 13-2 Eddiebet, Haraz, 7-1
Malaysian Boleh, 8-1 Ubla, 10-1 El Torito, Kafoo.
(�264: 1m 4f) (8)
K Shoemark
1 (4) 50501 CEYHAN 21 J Osborne 5-9-7
2 (1) 05503 AWESOME ROCK 42 (D) R Ingram 8-9-3
Rhiain Ingram (6)
3 (6) 00244 BERTIE MOON 6 (V,C) M Appleby 7-9-3 Keelan Baker (8)
C Shepherd
4 (2) 30000 MY LORD 8 (P,D) P Butler 9-9-3
5 (5) 00500 THE DANCING LORD 15 (T,P,C) A West 8-9-3
Nicola Currie (3)
E Greatrex
6 (7) 43000 MICHIGAN 15 (T,P) M Moubarak 3-8-13
7 (8) 00640 LA GOULUE 12 (V) J Gallagher 3-8-8 P Bridgwater (5)
J Osborn (3)
8 (3) 32640 ODE TO GLORY 27 Rae Guest 3-8-8
9-4 Ceyhan, Ode To Glory, 7-2 Bertie Moon, 9-2 Michigan, 20-1 My Lord, 25-1
Awesome Rock, The Dancing Lord, 33-1 La Goulue.
Itoje celebrates
after Farrell,
left, kicked the
Lions to a
famous victory
1.15
Course specialists
Catterick: Trainers S England, 4 from 11 runners,
36.4%; Mrs S Smith, 25 from 84, 29.8%; B Ellison, 17
from 63, 27.0%. Jockeys D Cook, 19 from 65 rides,
29.2%; A Coleman, 6 from 22, 27.3%.
Leicester: Trainers J Farrelly, 3 from 6, 50.0%; Miss
E Lavelle, 4 from 12, 33.3%; P Hobbs, 6 from 18,
33.3%. Jockeys A P Heskin, 6 from 18, 33.3%;
T Cannon, 4 from 13, 30.8%.
Lingfield Park: Trainers W Haggas, 66 from 207,
31.9%; H Palmer, 18 from 86, 20.9%; J Gosden, 55
from 286, 19.2%. Jockeys A Kirby, 180 from 925,
19.5%; Rossa Ryan, 4 from 22, 18.2%.
Handicap (�264: 7f 1y) (9)
T Saunders (7)
(6) 00520 WAQT 72 M Tregoning 3-9-8
L Keniry
(4) 20601 CAPTAIN PUGWASH 20 (D) H Spiller 3-9-7
D C Costello
(1) 20423 HARAZ 10 (V) J Osborne 4-9-5
L Morris
(3) 06425 KAFOO 28 (T,V,CD) M Appleby 4-9-4
K Shoemark
(7) 33503 EDDIEBET 22 D O'Meara 3-9-4
W Cox (5)
(5) 63435 UBLA 9 (P,C) Miss G Kelleway 4-9-3
(9) 00065 MALAYSIAN BOLEH 16 (V,CD) Phil McEntee 7-9-2
Josephine Gordon
8 (2) 50052 TERMSNCONDITIONS 41 (V,C) T Vaughan 3-9-1 K O'Neill
C Bennett (3)
9 (8) 00500 EL TORITO 8 (B,D,BF) J Boyle 3-9-1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Novice Stakes
(2-Y-O: �911: 7f 1y) (11)
T Marquand
1 (8) 25021 ZALSHAH 27 (P,D) R Hannon 9-9
BREAKING RECORDS H Palmer 9-2 Josephine Gordon
2 (9)
3 CHINGACHGOOK 26 R Fahey 9-2
J Garritty
3 (3)
0 DUBAI LANDMARK 8 H Palmer 9-2
J Mitchell
4 (11)
00 GARSINGTON 20 E Dunlop 9-2
S W Kelly
5 (7)
LICINIUS C Hills 9-2
L Morris
6 (2)
0 MARSHAL DAN 26 Mrs H Main 9-2
H Crouch (3)
7 (6)
05 MAVERICK OFFICER 125 D Simcock 9-2
S Donohoe
8 (1)
R Havlin
9 (10) 226 ODE TO AUTUMN 125 J Gosden 9-2
TOSHIMA E Walker 9-2
L Keniry
10 (5)
LIBERTY LYNX W Haggas 8-11
Georgia Cox (3)
11 (4)
5-2 Ode To Autumn, 11-4 Zalshah, 6-1 Toshima, 8-1 Chingachgook, 9-1
Breaking Records, 12-1 Liberty Lynx, Maverick Officer, 14-1 others.
1.45
him.? I went for it, looked up, Sonny Bill was
there. Oh, here we go. It was a pretty big hit but
I didn?t think immediately, ?That?s a red.? It?s
easier to judge an incident when you are
watching it rather than when you are actually in
it, but I was just focused on getting the ball
back.?
Harrison: ?I thought ?red card?. Not much
debate. My immediate reaction was that I was
feeling sorry for Sonny Bill. Let?s hope he isn?t
remembered for this. We?d bumped into him
earlier in the tour and he was an absolute gent,
a really nice guy.?
Fox: ?I sit in the coaches? box, just quietly
watching, I don?t give input. It?s a busy box but,
compared to some, it?s pretty calm and
analytical. When you go behind, it?s not an
emotional response, it?s always tactical: what
have we got to do to change this game? So when
this happened, we hoped it was yellow but we
Handicap
2.55
(�690: 1m 7f 169y) (8)
A Kirby
1 (7) 03552 RYDAN 15 (P) G L Moore 6-10-0
2 (5) 10230 ROYAL RESERVE 22 (C) D O'Meara 4-10-0 K Shoemark
3 (8) -0011 CAPTAIN NAVARRE 23 (V,D) C Fellowes 5-10-0
S Donohoe
T Marquand
4 (6) 2-664 CONTINUUM 15 (V) P Hedger 8-9-12
T J Murphy
5 (2) 52/4- ECHO BRAVA 468J (C) S Best 7-9-10
6 (3) 06040 POYLE THOMAS 15 (H) M Madgwick 8-9-5 Fran Berry
L Morris
7 (4) 60011 ISLAND BRAVE 29 (C) Mrs H Main 3-9-3
C Bishop
8 (1) 0146- ARISTOCLES 28J (V) Mrs N Evans 4-8-13
5-2 Captain Navarre, 4-1 Island Brave, Royal Reserve, 9-2 Rydan, 5-1
Continuum, 16-1 Echo Brava, Poyle Thomas, 25-1 Aristocles.
2.20
Maiden Stakes
(�911: 1m 1y) (9)
(8) 406/ NELSON'S HILL 945 W De Best-Turner 7-9-6 A Jones (3)
A Kirby
(1) 35643 DELIBERATOR 22 W Knight 3-9-5
R Tate
(7) 500 DUHR 15 Ralph J Smith 3-9-5
ELITE TREATY Miss G Kelleway 3-9-5
Fran Berry
(3)
L Keniry
(4) 6-362 PARADISE LAKE 73 (BF) E Walker 3-9-5
(5) 2453 SWISS VINNARE 15 (H) Phil McEntee 3-9-5
Nicola Currie (7)
R Havlin
7 (9) -0000 ANNABELLA 11 T McCarthy 4-9-1
56 PETERS FOLLY 15 (H) P Hiatt 4-9-1
W A Carson
8 (6)
UPTOWN GIRL L Pearce 3-9-0
S Pearce
9 (2)
1
2
3
4
5
6
13-8 Paradise Lake, 2-1 Deliberator, 3-1 Swiss Vinnare, 7-1 Duhr, 20-1 Elite
Treaty, 50-1 Peters Folly, Uptown Girl, 66-1 Annabella, 100-1 Nelson's Hill.
Nursery Handicap
(2-Y-O: �264: 7f 1y) (12)
Rossa Ryan (7)
1 (9) 00424 BEZOS 6 (P) R Hannon 9-9
S W Kelly
2 (7) 0003 LADY OF AUTHORITY 23 M McGrath 9-8
D C Costello
3 (11) 10550 BOOMERANG BETTY 15 J Osborne 9-8
4 (8) 45506 HOLLYWOOD DREAM 15 N Mulholland 9-7 Fran Berry
5 (2) 0602 CORAZON ESPINADO 22 S Dow 9-7 Paddy Bradley (5)
L Keniry
6 (3) 00430 ISOLETTA 22 E Walker 9-6
A Kirby
7 (12) 6060 CONFLAGRATION 27 E Dunlop 9-6
L Morris
8 (5) 0006 DARK FREEDOM 102 C Hills 9-1
065
FREE
TALKIN
80
M
Attwater
8-11
K Fox
9 (1)
10(10) 00050 KYLIE STYLE 9 (P) S Hollinshead 8-7 Nicola Currie (7)
P P Mathers
11 (6) 000 AMADEUS 17 (B) R Fahey 8-7
K O'Neill
12 (4) 0000 ROYAL WAVE 42 W Knight 8-1
7-2 Corazon Espinado, 11-2 Conflagration, 6-1 Lady Of Authority, 7-1 Bezos,
8-1 Amadeus, Isoletta, 12-1 Dark Freedom, Free Talkin, 14-1 others.
3.30
Handicap (�911: 6f 1y) (9)
A Kirby
(3) 00000 ART NOUVELLE 34 (D) J P O'Brien (Ire) 3-9-8
K O'Neill
(9) 20-00 WHIRL ME ROUND 21 (B) G Peckham 3-9-7
130UHELIS
(BF)
M
Scudamore
4-9-7
L
Keniry
(6)
D C Costello
(1) 05100 DANECASE 21 (P,CD) D Dennis 4-9-7
J Duern (3)
(8) 40001 VARSOVIAN 22 (CD) D Ivory 7-9-6
S W Kelly
(7) 26455 ZIPEDEEDODAH 20 (T,C) J Tuite 5-9-5
(4) 06400 JUAN HORSEPOWER 14 (P,C) R Hannon 3-9-4
Rossa Ryan (7)
L Morris
8 (5) 55333 VERY HONEST 16 (CD) B Johnson 4-9-4
9 (2) 04312 HAMISH MCGONAGAIN 10 (P,C,D) D O'Meara 4-9-0
K Shoemark
7-2 Hamish McGonagain, Varsovian, 5-1 Danecase, 6-1 Very Honest, 7-1 others.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
63
2G M
Sport
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
New Zealand 21
British & Irish Lions 24
Westpac Stadium, Wellington
New Zealand I Dagg; W Naholo, A LienertBrown, S B Williams, R Ioane; B Barrett, A Smith;
J Moody, C Taylor, O Franks, B Retallick,
S Whitelock, J Kaino, S Cane, K Read (capt).
Replacements N Harris, W Crockett,
C Faumuina, S Barrett, A Savea, TJ Perenara,
A Cruden, N Laumape.
Lions L Williams (Wales); A Watson (England),
J Davies (Wales), O Farrell (England), E Daly
(England); J Sexton (Ireland), C Murray
(Ireland); M Vunipola (England), J George
(England), T Furlong (Ireland), M Itoje
(England), A W Jones (Wales), S Warburton
(Wales, capt), S O?Brien (Ireland), T Faletau
(Wales). Replacements K Owens (Wales),
J McGrath (Ireland), K Sinckler (England),
C Lawes (England), CJ Stander (Ireland), R Webb
(Wales), B Te?o (England), J Nowell (England).
Williams was sent off for this tackle on Watson
commentary chart with the names and notes
and you leave space for things that happen
during the game, or editorial points, or words
that sum up what is happening, but during that
whole period, I wrote just one word, ?regrets?.
For me, the Lions were on the cusp of it slipping
away. They had the extra man, they?d lost their
discipline and they weren?t delivering the
points.?
Hastings: ?I was thinking: Holy shit, the series
was on the line.?
Cole: ?It seemed there was a nervousness
about the All Blacks too, they weren?t putting
the game away. They weren?t dominating. They
were 18-9 up, but never out of sight. The longer
that went on, the more you felt the tension
building.?
Stridgeon: ?Kyle [Sinckler] was on the bench
that day. He was itching to get on. He?s a lovely
kid, he was saying, ?Get me on, it?s my game, get
me on.? ?
Harrison: ?Finally Taulupe Faletau scored.
One of the best finishes you?ll see.?
Fox: ?A lot of the game was tight. We?ve often
been able to win games at the back end, to have
this ability to keep going when others are
flagging and then nail it in the last 20 minutes.
That wasn?t the case with the Lions. Where 14 v
15 was going to take its toll was in the back end
of the game and that is what happened.?
knew it was a red-card offence. Then it was.
?How do we react?? So we took off Jerome Kaino
and went 7 v 8 in the forwards.?
Watson: ?I went off for an HIA. I wanted to
come back out and play and that was my only
focus. I didn?t actually know Sonny Bill had
been red-carded until I was in the medical room
and saw it on the TV in there.?
Fox: ?Sometimes a red can have a galvanising
effect on a team and that is what happened.?
Harrison: ?The problem was, for the Lions, it
took them so long to take advantage of the
extra man.?
Cole: ?Obviously, as a Lion, you are
disappointed not to be involved in the Tests, but
then when you sit in the stand, you become a
fan and you realise this is pretty special. I sat
next to Joe Marler, Rory Best was behind us. I
remember James Haskell was miked up so we
were avoiding him. And then the ?Oh Maro
Itoje? chant started and it was half the stadium
singing it. It was one of those things, unique to
Lions tours when one player seems to become
the hero of the tour. Everyone joins in. Even I
did. It?s a catchy tune. You can?t not join in.
Except if you are Joe Marler.?
Watson: ?The Maro chants. I did register
them for about ten seconds, they?d just had a
kick at goal and I thought, ?Get your head back
in the game!? ?
Hastings: ?I didn?t join in. Itoje is a wonderful
player and a real icon, but it was the Lions, I
didn?t think it was all about one man. I didn?t
want to single out one man.?
For 30 minutes following Williams? red card, the
Lions struggled. They conceded a number of
penalties, Mako Vunipola was yellow-carded, they
fell 18-9 behind.
Harrison: ?Like all commentators, I?ve got a
Results
Football
Cricket
Premier League
Newcastle
South Africa v Zimbabwe Test
(0) 0
52,311
Man City
(1) 1
Sterling 31
6Table on page 66
Bostik Premier League Metropolitan Police 1
Leatherhead 2.
Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League
Aberdeen 1 Partick Thistle 0; Heart of
Midlothian 0 Hibernian 0; Rangers 2 Motherwell
0; Ross County 1 St Johnstone 1. Postponed
Hamilton v Kilmarnock (frozen pitch).
P
Celtic......................21
Aberdeen................21
Rangers..................21
Hibernian ............... 21
Hearts....................21
St. Johnstone.........20
Kilmarnock.............20
Motherwell ............ 20
Hamilton
20
Dundee
21
Ross County...........21
Partick Thistle.......21
W
15
13
12
9
7
7
6
7
5
5
4
4
D
5
3
3
7
8
5
7
3
5
4
5
5
L
1
5
6
5
6
8
7
10
10
12
12
12
F
48
33
41
30
21
21
24
25
27
21
21
17
A
15
24
25
26
19
28
27
29
33
32
34
37
GD Pts
33 50
9 42
16 39
4 34
2 29
-7 26
-3 25
-4 24
-6 20
-11 19
-13 17
-20 17
Port Elizabeth (second day of four): South
Africa won by an innings and 120 runs
South Africa: First Innings 309-9 dec
Zimbabwe: First Innings 68 (overnight 30-4)
R P Burl b Morkel
16
K M Jarvis c De Villiers b Phehlukwayo
23
S R Butt c De Villiers b Morkel
0
P J Moor b Phehlukwayo
9
*A G Cremer c De Villiers b Rabada
2
C B Mpofu c Bavuma b Rabada
0
B Muzarabani not out
4
Extras (lb 2nb 2)
4
Total (30.1 overs)
68
Fall of wickets: 5-36, 6-36, 7-55, 8-63, 9-63.
Bowling: Morkel 11-5-21-5; Philander 10-4-211; Rabada 6.1-2-12-2; Phehlukwayo 3-0-12-2.
Second Innings 121
H Masakadza c De Villiers b Maharaj
13
C J Chibhabha c De Villiers b Rabada
15
C R Ervine lbw b Phehlukwayo
23
?B R M Taylor c De Villiers b Maharaj
16
R P Burl c De Villiers b Phehlukwayo
0
S R Butt c Phehlukwayo b Maharaj
5
P J Moor c De Villiers b Phehlukwayo
1
*A G Cremer not out
18
K M Jarvis b Philander
5
C B Mpofu b Maharaj
0
B Muzarabani b Maharaj
10
Extras (b 8, lb 7)
15
Total (42.3 overs)
121
Fall of wickets: 1-54, 2-75, 3-75, 4-80, 5-80,
6-87, 7-91, 8-98, 9-103.
Bowling: Morkel 4-0-12-0; Philander 7-3-10-1;
Maharaj 17.3-5-59-5; Rabada 7-3-12-1;
Phehlukwayo 7-2-13-3.
Darts
Alexandra Palace, London: William Hill World
Championship: Second round: (Eng unless stated)
D Webster bt S Whitlock (Aus) 4-1; J Richardson
bt A Norris 4-1; A Alcinas (Sp) bt K Munch (Ger)
4-1; J Lewis (Wal) bt P Wright (Sco) 4-1; M van
Gerwen (Neth) bt G Price (Wal) 4-2.
Fixtures
Football
Premier League: Crystal Palace v Arsenal (8.0).
Darts
Alexandra Palace, north London: William Hill
PDC World Championship.
With three minutes to go, the scores were tied
21-21. Sinckler jumped to catch a pass, was
tackled by Charlie Faumuina, technically taking
him in the air. The penalty was awarded to
the Lions.
Harrison: ?I just knew [Owen] Farrell would
kick it. The lad is amazing. The harder the kick,
the more important, the more certain he is to
kick it. That, to me, is the mark of a great
sportsman.?
Watson: ?When big games like that come
along, you want big players to step up and Owen
Farrell did what Owen Farrell does. Ice cool,
kicked the points, did what was needed.?
Stridgeon: ?I was frying to death in those last
few minutes, thinking, ?It?s going to happen
again. It?s going to happen again.? When Faz
kicked us ahead, I was sitting there with my
eyes filling up. I was thinking, ?They are going to
score here ? because that?s what they always
do, don?t they?? ?
But they didn?t. The Lions won 24-21.
Cole: ?Everyone was in the changing room
afterwards. There were sore and battered
bodies, but everybody in there realised they had
played in or been part of something special. It is
rare in rugby that you actually stop to enjoy it,
but for 10-15 minutes after the game, it was
really good: a massive circle, singing the songs,
50 people in there just enjoying the
togetherness of beating the All Blacks.?
Watson: ?It was an unbelievable feeling. But
unless you go and you go do something the
following week, this feeling was temporary. So it
was great for five or ten minutes, then you are
straight onto the next task, the third Test.?
Stridgeon: ?Back at the hotel, it was packed.
You couldn?t move. One of Gats? kids went out
and got McDonald?s for all the staff. It was
perfect. A nice red wine and a McDonald?s.
There?s no better way to celebrate.?
Hastings: ?The next morning, in the airport, I
met Frank Bunce and Andy Haden [two All
Black greats]. It was interesting, they were all
quite happy that we?d won the second Test
because clearly there was going to be a great
build-up to the third, but I will remember this
until I am no longer on this planet ? there was
just total confidence that the All Blacks would
absolutely kick our arses in the third Test. I
thought, ?You guys are off your trollies.? I had
no doubt that the Lions were still coming to
get them.?
Fox: ?For the whole series, we felt that we?d
been in our shells a bit, that we didn?t take as
many risks against the Lions as we should. That
was out of total respect for them, they did that
to us because we knew how good they were.
Reviewing the tapes later, we saw at 18-9 we?d
done that very thing. There were enough
opportunities for us to move the ball to areas
where we?d planned, where we felt we could
hurt the Lions, but because of 14 men and a
tight game, we just didn?t. We didn?t throw the
pass, we chose to kick or carry.?
Watson: ?Later that week, Sonny Bill sent me
a message on Twitter to apologise. I knew he
was never a malicious player, though. I went on
holiday to Fiji afterwards with Kyle Sinckler;
Sonny Bill was in the same hotel as us and we
ended up having a bowl of cava together.?
6 Tomorrow Sorry track finale for Bolt as
Britain win world championships relay gold
France replace Nov鑣 with Brunel
Alex Lowe
Deputy Rugby Correspondent
Guy Nov鑣 was sacked as
France head coach yesterday,
with Jacques Brunel appointed
to lead the team into the 2019
World Cup.
Nov鑣 is the first France
coach to be dismissed midcontract but he paid for a dismal
record of seven wins from 21
matches since his appointment
after the 2015 World Cup.
The France squad were
understood to have lost faith in
the coach who guided Toulouse
to four European titles, believing that his style of play was
outdated. France failed to win
any of their four autumn
internationals and Nov鑣? final
match in charge was a 23-23
draw with Japan on November
25.
Brunel has left BordeauxB鑗les to take charge of France a
little over a month before the
NatWest Six Nations. The
former Italy head coach was
part of the France management
team under Bernard Laporte,
who is now head of the French
Rugby Federation, from 2001 to
2007. He will be assisted by a
pool of five or six Top 14 club
coaches to be appointed tournament by tournament.
Bath have been fined �,000
by Premiership Rugby Ltd
(PRL) for releasing Taulupe
Faletau to play for Wales against
South Africa on December 2.
The PRL policy is to block
non-England players from playing in Test matches that are
outside the official World Rugby
international window. The RFU
pays the clubs for the extra
England access as part of its
�5 million club-country deal.
The Premiership wants to
introduce an extended tenmonth season, starting next
September, to ensure that no
club fixtures are played on
international weekends.
64
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
2G M
Sport Football
Why Liverpool are
sure Van Dijk will
be worth the wait
Paul Joyce
Northern Football
Correspondent
As Virgil van Dijk walked off the
Anfield pitch in mid-November, his
reaction said everything about where
his mind was ? and had been for the
previous five months.
Southampton had just been picked
apart by Liverpool when Van Dijk
turned to one of his team-mates as they
walked back to the dressing room.
?Why wouldn?t you want to play
here?? he said with a sense of longing.
Soon enough he will, after Liverpool
sealed his � million arrival from
St Mary?s in what amounts to a coup,
given Manchester City?s interest.
Pep Guardiola?s team may be blazing
a trail in the Premier League, but the
combination of Liverpool?s history,
Anfield and, crucially, J黵gen Klopp
has held a strong allure for the centre
back since the summer.
Van Dijk sees a similarity in terms of
the stature of Liverpool and his former
team Celtic with regards to the fan
base and the fervour that swirls around
the club.
It would have been easy to be
seduced by City?s brilliance and yet the
26-year-old believes that the next
phase of his career will be best served
under Klopp in a team where he is
guaranteed to start as the leader of a
new-look back line.
For the Liverpool manager, the belief
is unflinching that Van Dijk will prove
worth the wait.
The embarrassment endured at
Anfield back in June ? when the
owners, Fenway Sports Group, ordered
the club to withdraw their interest in
the player for fear of being hit with a
Premier League tapping-up charge ?
will have given way to relief yesterday
as they finally reached an agreement.
continued from back
Wenger: no pity for �0m United
after player sales. ?I have been in that
position for 21 years so I will not start to
complain now, there is always one team,
sometimes four, who were richer than I
was, so I learnt to cope with that and to
deal with that,? Wenger, who will equal
Sir Alex Ferguson?s record of 810 Premier League games as a manager tonight, said.
?What is most important is you deal
with your own situation as well as you
can and, yes, Manchester City are richer than us, yes, Chelsea are richer than
us, and Manchester United are richer
than us but I still believe we have to find
a way to be successful.?
Since Mourinho and Pep Guardiola
were appointed at the start of
last season, United have spent
�8.9 million and City �3.8 million,
after player sales. Wenger has spent a
net �.1 million in the same period but
the financial disparity has often been
overlooked by supporters.
Late Christmas present: Van Dijk
posted a picture of him holding a
Liverpool shirt next to his tree on his
Instagram account yesterday evening
Mike Gordon, the president of FSG,
has been responsible for smoothing
relations between the clubs during
discussions with Ralph Krueger, the
Southampton chairman. After initial
acrimony there was a thaw and, on the
final day of the August transfer window,
Liverpool were still hoping a phone call
would prompt the south-coast club to
accept the � million-plus cheque they
were prepared to write then.
Southampton?s reluctance to do business was understandable at the time,
but has spectacularly rebounded.
Van Dijk?s disappointment at being
denied his move despite submitting a
transfer request was such that he has
not played like someone who can now
call himself the world?s most expensive
defender. The proceeds of his departure
will have to be spent wisely at St Mary?s,
the impact of incoming signings
immediate, if their season is not to
continue in a tailspin.
Crystal Palace v Arsenal
Kick-off 8pm, Selhurst Park
TV Live, Sky Sports PL Radio BBC 5 Live
Highlights on The Times app
Referee M Atkinson
Crystal Palace (possible; 4-2-3-1)
Speroni
Kelly
Tomkins
Dann
Cabaye
Townsend
Schlupp
Milivojevic
Zaha
Loftus-Cheek
Benteke
Lacazette
S醤chez
謟il
Wilshere
Xhaka
MaitlandNiles
Koscielny
Mustafi
Iwobi
Beller韓
Cech
Arsenal (probable; 4-1-4-1)
Liverpool will believe that the addition of a player who could not convince
the likes of Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and
Feyenoord to sign him earlier in his
career and so moved from Groningen
to Celtic in 2013 can bolster them on
several fronts, not least the Champions
League, for which he is eligible.
The fee is more than double the
�.9 million paid for Mohamed Salah
and outstrips the deal, understood to be
in the region of � million, which will
kick-in when the midfielder Naby Ke飔a
joins from RB Leipzig on July 1.
FSG have been accused of being
unambitious and of buying potential
rather than proven talent, but this
transfer undermines that notion, even
if we must wait and see if Philippe
Coutinho is still Van Dijk?s team-mate
when the transfer window closes or
newly ensconced in Barcelona. Letting
the Brazilian leave now is too much of a
risk to Liverpool?s season with not
enough payback.
Van Dijk will not solve the defensive
issues that blight Liverpool all by
himself. The problems that reared at
Arsenal on Friday, when Klopp?s team
conceded three goals in six minutes, as
many as they had in the previous six
games, are to do with the approach and
mindset of an entire team. That is down
to Klopp.
What Van Dijk will bring is
leadership, as he explained when
discussing his style of play in an interview with The Times last December.
?I like to be under control,? he said.
?I know when to speed the game up
and I know when to take the pace out of
the game as well. That is necessary
sometimes.
?I try to be a leader. I am a natural
leader and I cannot play a game
without talking to everybody. I need to
be involved and even if my team-mates
get mad at me I don?t care.
?I want to come off the pitch with my
voice gone ? and that happens every
game.?
Not quite every game, as his heartfelt
expression six weeks ago revealed.
?People don?t want to know about
that,? he said. ?They want you to win
the games. But at the end of the day,
your job is to take the best out of your
team, the potential of your team, and
nobody can really measure that. You
have to be objective enough to analyse
that, and to do as well as you can.?
Wenger admitted that he had never
dreamt that he would still be in charge
at Arsenal 21 years after becoming
manager. His 810th match in charge
comes away to Crystal Palace tonight
and he will break Ferguson?s record
against West Bromwich Albion on
Sunday.
After beginning as a coach aged 34 at
Nancy, Wenger went on to spend seven
years at Monaco and one in Japan
before arriving in north London. He
could not have imagined in 1996 that he
would be a manager at the age of 68.
?I would have said, ?You?re absolutely
mad, absolutely no chance,? ? he said. ?I
was 34, I thought that to get to 60 is 26
years, you?ll never get there because
every game is such a gamble. It?s
The defender?s
previous visit
to Anfield
ended in a 3-0
loss last month
How the record fee for defenders has risen
Rio Ferdinand
�m
West Ham to Leeds
Rio Ferdinand
�m
Leeds to Man Utd
Virgil van Dijk
�m
Southampton to
Liverpool
Thiago Silva
�m
AC Milan to PSG
Jaap Stam
�.6m
PSV to
Man Utd
1998
Lilian Thuram
�m
Parma to Juventus
2000
David Luiz
�m
Chelsea
to PSG
2001
2002
Russian roulette, every game. So you
think, at some stage the trigger [bullet]
will hit you.?
Wenger said that his longevity at
Arsenal was down to his values
matching that of the club and is
the reason he has never left. ?It
is about loyalty, dedication
and hard work, the sacrifice
of your life. As well as luck,
because I was in a club who
h
trusted in me always through
good and bad periods.
?It?s still about values and the
carrier of the values is the
manager at the club or
somebody else, and if you
have no stability, these
values are questioned.
We
have
already
changed six managers
in the league [this
season]. But if you
change 20, you
have
still
three clubs
who go
2012
2014

100
90
80
70
60
50
Kyle Walker
40
�m
Tottenham 30
to Man City
20
10
2017
2017
0
down, only one who will win the championship. Technical stability is something that is important. Maybe the
clubs need to be stronger to resist that.?
Wenger has hinted that Jack
Wilshere may need to accept a pay cut
to agree a new contract beyond the
summer. Wenger had said that he
would decide this month whether to
offer the midfielder a deal. Wilshere
earns about �0,000-a-week if he
plays. ?I?ll sit down with Jack and I
believe that, if we can meet a
point of agreement financially,
he will want to stay,? he said.
Crystal Palace, who
shocked Arsenal with a
3-0 victory in this fixt
ture
last season, will
have Christian Benteke
b
back
to lead the front
l
line
after suspension.
Wenger says that he
could never have
imagined spending
21 years at Arsenal
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
65
2G M
Sport
DAVID BLUNSDEN/GETTY IMAGES
He is right: in defence of
Mourinho and his moaning
United have become
better under him
and have spent less
money than rivals City,
explains Paul Hirst
Playing it out of defence
Klopp likes his centre backs to be
comfortable on the ball ? and the
new man may have to up his game
Player
Ragnar Klavan
Jo雔 Matip
Dejan Lovren
Virgil van Dijk
Joe Gomez
continued from back
Defender completes �m deal
Nuffield Hospital in Bournemouth
after negotiations were finalised and he
later posted a message on social media,
saying: ?Delighted and honoured to
have agreed to become a Liverpool FC
player!
?Today is a proud day for me and my
family as I join one of the biggest clubs
in world football. I can?t wait to pull on
the famous red shirt for the first time in
front of the Kop. And [I] will give
everything I have to try and help this
great club achieve something special in
the years to come.?
The interest from Pep Guardiola, the
City head coach, was significant and a
City official contacted Southampton
Passing accuracy
90.63%
89.46%
87.8%
85.78%
84.09%
recently to check on Van Dijk?s
availability. His desire to play under
Klopp and the asking price proved to
be obstacles.
It is likely that Guardiola will now try
to proceed with a deal for I駃go
Mart韓ez, the Real Sociedad defender
who has a release clause of � million,
or Jonny Evans, whom they were
unable to prise from West Bromwich
Albion in the summer.
The fallout between Southampton
and Liverpool in June meant that the
south-coast club had initially been
reluctant to do business. Yet Klopp?s
determination to land a player whom
he believes will bolster his defence
meant that Southampton?s hopes of
fleshing out their asking price were best
served by inviting Liverpool to the
negotiating table.
Henderson could miss a month
Paul Joyce
Liverpool could be without Jordan
Henderson for the bulk of their January
programme as they fret over his
hamstring injury.
The midfielder missed the 5-0 win
over Swansea City and J黵gen Klopp,
the Liverpool manager, has already
ruled his captain out of Saturday?s
home game with Leicester City and the
New Year?s Day trip to Burnley.
Henderson may be absent for up to a
month and miss six matches as a result
of the injury that he suffered against
Arsenal last Friday, which forced him
off after 13 minutes.
Meanwhile, Klopp has told Trent
Alexander-Arnold that he must only
stay down if he is injured. AlexanderArnold scored his first league goal for
the club against Swansea, but Klopp
spoke to the youngster after he failed to
get up immediately after being caught
accidentally by Jordan Ayew?s elbow.
?He was pleased with the
performance and especially the goal,?
Alexander-Arnold said. ?I got an elbow
to the face and he said unless my nose
is broken I need to get up straight away.
That is one for the future and when I get
an elbow I will be straight back up.?
The teenager has, nevertheless,
made exceptional progress since his full
Premier League debut against
Manchester United in January. ?I am
really proud,? the 19-year-old said. ?It
started well with the Man United game
and I?ve pushed on really well since
then. It all came from the manager?s
trust.?
Liverpool defender Jon Flanagan has
been charged with assault for an incident in the early hours of December 22.
He is due to appear at Liverpool
magistrates? court on Tuesday.
A day after Jos� Mourinho?s latest
outburst, the message from within the
corridors of power at Old Trafford
regarding their manager remained the
same: the Manchester United hierarchy are convinced that the club are
moving forward under his stewardship.
When you boil down the figures, it
is easy to see why they have come to
this conclusion. Despite Mourinho?s
gloomy expression, life is not all that
bad for United fans at the moment.
Mourinho?s side have accumulated
43 points from 20 games. That is the
highest number of points gained by
United at this stage of the season since
Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. A 43point tally would have been enough to
put United top of the table at this stage
of the campaign in six of the 25 Premier
League seasons that preceded this one.
Indeed, if United continue accruing
points at their current rate of 2.15 per
game, they will end the season with 82.
That would have been enough to win
the league on seven occasions since the
Premier League reduced in size from 22
teams to 20 in 1995. Ferguson?s great
Treble-winning side of the 1998-99
season managed only 79 points.
It is easy to forget that United have
lost only three times in the league this
season. They need to score only six
more times to match Louis van Gaal?s
miserly total of 49 in his final season
in charge.
United are through to the knockout
stages of the Champions League after
topping their group and they have won
two major trophies since Van Gaal left.
That is two more than J黵gen Klopp
has won in almost two and a half years
at Liverpool and two more than Mauricio Pochettino has managed since he
took over at Tottenham Hotspur in
2015. The problem for Mourinho is, of
course, that this is no ordinary season,
and that his most bitter rival, Pep
Guardiola, is in charge of the Manchester City team who are running away
with the league.
It must have been difficult for Mourinho to stand on the touchline at Old
Trafford on Boxing Day and be branded a ?shit Guardiola? by the Burnley
supporters, who were rejoicing after
their team had taken a 2-0 lead.
Mourinho and Guardiola may have
exchanged handshakes after City?s
derby win at Old Trafford almost three
weeks ago, but there still exists an
enmity between the two managers.
And as far as Mourinho is concerned,
Guardiola has been given considerably
more backing than him in the transfer
market. The numbers add up. City have
spent around �1 million since
Guardiola arrived 18 months ago, while
Mourinho
has
spent
around
� million less over the same period.
Mourinho was widely criticised
for claiming that �0 million was
?not enough? to make United
challengers, but he has a point. He
inherited a mish-mash squad,
weakened by many years off
ill-advised investment.
David Moyes?s only notablee
d
signings were Juan Mata and
h
Marouane Fellaini. United paid the
price for his indecisiveness. Of the 12
signings made by Van Gaal, six have left
and the only match-winner among
How United have improved
Unlike Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal, United have more
points after 20 matches than last season. The problem is, so do City
Pts last season
This season
42
39
49
44
42
40
58
43
42
38
37
34
Man City
Man Utd
Chelsea
Liverpool
Tottenham
Arsenal*
Difference
U 16
U4
V -7
V -6
V -5
V -6
*After 19 games
Where points would have put them
United?s 43 points this season would have put them top at the same
stage in 2015-16 and lifted them in other recent campaigns.
Season
Pts and position
16-17
15-16
14-15
13-14
12-13*
39pts ? 6th
33pts ? 5th
37pts ? 3rd
34pts ? 7th
49pts ? 1st
Position with this
season?s tally
U 3rd
U 1st
X 3rd
U 3rd
V 2nd
*Sir Alex Ferguson?s last season
them who remains is Anthony Martial.
Before Guardiola arrived at City, Kevin
De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and
Nicol醩 Otamendi had a year to bed in.
Fernandinho had been playing in the
Premier League for three seasons
before Guardiola took charge. Such
players provided a foundation for the
Catalan to work with before he added
the stardust with the signings of Leroy
How Big Six splashed cash
Top clubs? net spend in the past
three transfer windows (� millions)
Sum 16 Jan 17 Sum 17
Man City
Man Utd
Chelsea
Arsenal
Liverpool
Spurs
163
136.7
103.4
75.5
-6.8
31.3
26.7
-38.5
-57.8
0.04
-4
-4.5
134.1
130.7
40.7
-20
69.9
11.5
Total
323.8
228.9
86.3
55.54
59.1
38.3
San�, Gabriel Jesus, Kyle Walker,
Ederson and John Stones.
David Silva and Sergio Ag黣ro
already had vast experience by the time
Guardiola?s reign began, while in the
last few years of Ferguson?s reign
United spent money on quick fixes such
as Robin van Persie and Michael Owen,
or cut-price options such as Javier
Hern醤dez and Chris Smalling.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of
Mourinho?s situation is that the United
board do not expect to make any signings in the transfer window, which
means that he is stuck with what is essentially a bunch of mediocre players,
plus three or four who stand out from
the rest, until the end of the season.
Mourinho is worried about the lack
of technical quality within his squad
and he has a point. The likes of Daley
Blind, Matteo Darmian and Marcos
Rojo are hardly outstanding players,
and Mourinho has done well to get
them performing at their present levels.
Ashley Young has had an excellent
season, but probably would not get on
City?s bench.
It is also understood that Mourinho
harbours concerns about the mental
fragility of some players. He feels that
some of them lack the fight to deal with
the pressure of playing for a top club.
Mourinho is to blame for this to a
certain extent. The constant public
criticism of his players has inspired
some, but has disheartened others.
The Portuguese is not everyone?s
cup of tea at United. There are those
within the club who fear he views this
job as a short-term project. But he
remains a well-respected figure
within the dressing room. The
p
players largely hold him in high
regard thanks to the fact that he
has won 25 trophies during his
career. Some may struggle to
w
warm
to him personally, but
th
h
there
is an acceptance that United will
start adding more trophies under his
leadership if his plans are adhered to.
Mourinho is well respected in United?s
dressing room for winning 25 trophies
66
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Sport Football
Sterling delivers again for
Henry Winter
How they stand
Chief Football
Writer
Newcastle United
Manchester City
Sterling 31
0
2
1
Premier League
Pep Guardiola went into his office at
the Manchester City Football Academy
on Boxing Day and ran his eye over the
first-team calendar before departing
for Newcastle. He saw the intensification of fixtures, including Sunday?s trip
to Crystal Palace and then the home
league game with Watford, Burnley in
the FA Cup, a journey to Liverpool in
the league and ?then the Carabao Cup
in January and the Champions League
in February? interwoven with more
league games. ?I see the schedule and I
want to escape,? Guardiola said.
He was talking after another victory,
City?s 18th league win in a row, leaving
them only one behind Bayern Munich?s
record for European leagues set under
him in 2013-14; Guardiola is such an
accomplished coach, the greatest of the
past decade, that he is now chasing his
own records.
His phenomenal City have taken 58
points from a possible 60 this season,
have a goal difference of plus 49, and
are 15 points clear of Jos� Mourinho?s
second-placed Manchester United. But
Guardiola?s thoughts were of the games
ahead, the forbidding bleak midwinter
of English football, a league urgently
needing a break in January.
It seems the only English opponent
capable of slowing Guardiola?s
formidable machine could be the crazy
calendar. Exhaustion could be City?s
only significant enemy. Guardiola says
that he will continue to rotate, and will
have no choice as injuries bite and
form fluctuates. Vincent Kompany
sustained an injury for the 39th
time. Gabriel Jesus is off thee
pace, temporarily mislayd
ing his goal touch. David
Silva has been excused duties for
personal reasons. John Stones has still
to return from injury. Benjamin Mendy
remains out.
Guardiola can still strengthen next
month, with Alexis S醤chez and Jonny
Evans obvious targets, and promote
from the youth ranks, including
Brahim D韆z and Tosin Adarabioyo
who were on the bench last night.
Phil Foden will return from injury.
Guardiola is reliant on a small group of
marvellously consistent performers
from Ederson in goal to Nicol醩
P
Man City .......... 20
Man United ..... 20
Chelsea............20
Liverpool.........20
Tottenham.......20
Arsenal...............19
Burnley..............20
Leicester...........20
Everton..............20
Watford.............20
Huddersfield...20
Brighton............20
Stoke..................20
Southampton..20
Newcastle.........20
C Palace ............. 19
West Ham.........20
Bournemouth.20
West Brom ....... 20
Swansea............20
W
19
13
13
10
11
10
9
7
7
7
6
5
5
4
5
4
4
4
2
3
NEWCASTLE
D
1
4
3
8
4
4
6
6
6
4
5
6
5
7
3
6
6
5
9
4
L F A GDPts
0 61 12 49 58
3 43 16 27 43
4 34 14 20 42
2 46 23 23 38
5 39 20 19 37
5 34 23 11 34
5 18 17 1 33
7 30 30 0 27
7 24 30 -6 27
9 29 35 -6 25
9 18 32 -14 23
9 15 25 -10 21
10 23 41 -18 20
9 20 30 -10 19
12 19 30 -11 18
9 16 29 -13 18
10 22 38 -16 18
11 18 31 -13 17
9 14 27 -13 15
13 11 31 -20 13
MAN CITY
POSSESSION
22%
78%
TOTAL ATTEMPTS
5
18
ATTEMPTS ON TARGET
2
6
CORNERS
3
8
FOULS
6
11
TOTAL PASSES
228
824
Kompany was
taken off after
11 minutes
with another
injury
Otamendi at centre back, Kyle Walker
at right back, Raheem Sterling on the
wing and, most influentially, Kevin De
Bruyne.
The Belgian is the best player in
English football at present, registering
his ninth assist last night, creating
Sterling?s winner just after the
half-hour mark. It was vintage City, a
celebration of their myriad strengths,
the speed of thought and movement,
the finesse in technique with De
Bruyne again the conductor. It was
classic pass and move fast, Sterling
playing the ball in to De Bruyne, then
racing on, knowing the return would
arrive. De Bruyne waited for the right
moment to release, weighted the ball
perfectly and lifted it over Newcastle?s
defence towards Sterling. The England
striker caught the ball with the base of
his left boot, placing it past Rob Elliot.
This was Sterling?s fourth goal in his
past three games, and his 17th of the
season in all competitions, and another
sign of how he has responded to the
coaching of Guardiola and his staff.
It immediately shredded Rafa
Ben韙ez?s cautious game plan. The
most damning statistic of the night
was that Ben韙ez?s 13 outfield players
completed 115 passes, seven fewer than
Otamendi, and Newcastle?s fifth defeat
on the spin at St James? Park was their
worst run here since 1953.
Newcastle were on the back foot
from the start, defending in depth in
front of the Gallowgate with Joselu a
distant figure in a 5-4-1 system, the
f
focus
on attrition not ambition.
B
Ben韙ez
started regulars such as Matt
Ritchie, Mikel Merino and Christian
Atsu on the bench, clearly focusing
on Brighton & Hove Albion on
Saturday and Stoke City on
Monday.
This was not an approach
i keeping with Newcastle
in
t
tradition,
this was damage
limitation, bordering on
s
surrender.
Being adventuro against one of the most
ous
accomplished teams in
r
recent
memory was, of
c
course,
a risk but Newcastle
f
fans
expect, and deserve, some
a
adventure,
some pride in the shirt,
not hide and get hurt.
They were almost breached even
b
before
Sterling?s strike. When Jacob
Murphy caught Ilkay G黱dogan,
D Bruyne swung the free kick in
De
from the right, only Elliot?s reflexes
kept out Sergio Ag黣ro?s header.
A
After
Sterling scored, City briefly
eased up, allowing Newcastle a
glimpse of goal. When Walker
slipped, Rolando Aarons collected
and, spotting Ederson off his line,
Sterling
De Bruyne
Sterling starts
his run as pass
is made
attempted to chip the Brazilian but
Otamendi headed off the line.
City fans up in the gods kept singing
in praise of Guardiola, and also chanting ?Jos�s cracking up?. They almost
had more to celebrate when G黱dogan
stole the ball off Mohamed Diam� but
Elliot pushed his shot away. De Bruyne
then shot wide and hit a post.
Ben韙ez began to make changes,
sending on Dwight Gayle for Joselu and
then Atsu for Aarons. Newcastle
suddenly believed. When Walker lost
the ball, Gayle raced through, angling
to the right as Danilo came across.
Gayle could have shot but he continued
and fell to earth as Danilo crossed
behind him. It was clear simulation,
well spotted by Andre Marriner, who
cautioned the Newcastle striker. It was
also a waste of a hugely promising
opportunity.
Newcastle?s fans were lifted by the
more attacking approach, and also
Ben韙ez needs cash injection to throw off the shackles
George Caulkin
Northern Sports Correspondent
Gauging the strength of a team?s revival
against Manchester City is like a golfer
testing his short game in the teeth of a
hurricane; bad for confidence and
ultimately futile. In deciding the risk
was not worth it, Rafa Ben韙ez offended
those who view the Premier League
through the prism of the top four, but he
also avoided a hammering, protected
Newcastle United?s goal difference and
saved some energy.
Is that what football has become? In
the bottom half of this moneydrenched division, where fear is the
prevailing motivation, it is the way of
things. After their welcome victory
over West Ham United, Ben韙ez
prepared for forthcoming matches
against Brighton & Hove Albion and
Stoke City, withdrawing Dwight Gayle,
Matt Ritchie and Christian Atsu and
piling men behind the ball.
Ben韙ez argued that his tactics suited
the occasion, that attempting to
restrain gilded opponents was simply
common sense. In the final 15 minutes,
Newcastle had a go, striving for an
equaliser, coming desperately close
through Mikel Merino, and the
manager?s calculation is that this
approach reflects his players? ability. As
Alan Shearer put it: ?A Championship
side playing in the Premier League?.
They are not good enough to be
better. Perhaps one day, but not yet and,
for spells in the first half, Newcastle?s leaden. ?Our fans are clever,? Ben韙ez
back five defended so deep that the said. ?They know we had to do it that
waters of the Tyne nearly lapped
way.?
at their shin pads. There were
Greater battles lie ahead, on
moments ? and plenty of
and off the pitch. Their next
them ? when Joselu, their
two fixtures pit them
lonely striker, was staagainst two of the three
tioned 30 yards within his
sides immediately above
City are one win from
own territory. Respite ?
them and if Ben韙ez?s
equalling the record for
and there was much less successive wins in top five team selection was a nod
European leagues, set by
of that ? was brief.
towards that then it was
Bayern Munich under
Ben韙ez has never been
understandable. Beyond
Pep Guardiola
an idealist. He plots and
that, Amanda Staveley?s
plans for everything, but unproposed takeover feels crucial
derstanding City?s genius is not parto the wellbeing of a club who
ticularly helpful; no team can break perpetually tiptoe along a precipice.
them down. Newcastle remained one
Ben韙ez has made little attempt to
scuffed, deflected shot away from an gloss over Newcastle?s frailties; they did
equaliser, even if the approach was not do their business adequately last
19
summer. It feels typically nonsensical
that so close to the transfer window
opening he has not been given any
indication about the size of his budget,
but money must be found.
A few bob for Aleksandar Mitrovic
would help, although Newcastle are yet
to receive any substantive interest in
the Serbia forward, who has had a back
problem. The 23-year-old is not trusted
by Ben韙ez and has expressed a desire to
leave. ?I?m sorry ? after all, I loved
Newcastle but it?s time for me to look
more to myself,? he said.
Ben韙ez, meanwhile, scrapes around
for answers. ?We?ll all have a party
when [Mike] Ashley sells the club,? their
supporters sang. But they must work
for it, for everything.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
67
2G M
Sport
dominant City
Kane: team trophies
will eclipse records
GREIG COWIE/BPI/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
Darren Witcoop
Harry Kane has said that he would
swap any further personal landmarks
for a long-awaited trophy with
Tottenham Hotspur.
Kane will finish 2017 with 39 Premier
League goals, eclipsing
Alan Shearer?s record
from 1995, thanks to his
latest hat-trick in the
5-2 rout of Southampton on Boxing Day.
His tally of 56 for club
and country during the
calendar year also makes
him the leading scorer in
Europe, ahead of Lionel Messi
of Barcelona and Argentina.
It is an impressive feat that will
take some beating, but Kane has
set his sights much higher for the
north London club. For all of
their near misses, Tottenham
have not lifted silverware since
beating Chelsea to win the
League Cup in 2008.
Asked if team records meant
more than the individual
accolades coming his way, Kane
said: ?Yeah, for sure, 100 per cent.
I?ve always said team trophies are
what I want to achieve.
?We?ve got a good chance to win
the FA Cup. In the Champions
League we?ve shown we can beat
the best and we?ve got to see how
far we can go in that.
?Obviously in the Premier League
we?re in a fight for the top four and
we?ve got to see how high we can get.
There?s a lot to play for and for me it?s
about winning trophies.?
Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham
manager, has placed Kane in the
bracket of Messi and Real Madrid?s
Cristiano Ronaldo as the world?s top
players.
Kane had spoken of his determination to one day rival the pair and he has
achieved that over a remarkable 12
months, during which he has scored
eight hat-tricks.
Despite his haul he still has some
way to go to eclipse them, with
his tenth-place finish in this
month?s Ballon d?Or proof.
At 24, however, time is on
his side.
?They?re both great
records but the club and
country one is good as it
shows I?m doing it at all
levels
?
Champions
League and for England ?
and not just in one competiti
tion,?
Kane said. ?That?s one I?m
very proud of.
?When you look at Messi and
Ronaldo, I?ve obviously still got a
long way to go before I can be
compared to them but it?s a start
and that?s what I want to do. I want
to keep improving and be up there
one day. That?s always the goal, to
be bracketed with the best players
in the world.?
Kane says he would swap his goal
accolades for team honours
Bolasie feared career was over
Yannick Bolasie said he feared he might
never play again after the knee injury
that required two operations and
forced him on to the sidelines for a year.
The Everton winger revealed the
doubts and torment that he endured
during his rehabilitation after his
comeback in the goalless draw with
West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day,
having been surprisingly named in Sam
Allardyce?s starting line-up.
Bolasie damaged the anterior
cruciate ligament and meniscus in
his right knee in the match against
Manchester United on December 4,
2016, and revealed how the full extent
of the injury cast a cloud over whether
he would play again.
?It was a career-threatening injury so
for me to be back where I am, and how
I?m feeling, is incredible,? said Bolasie,
who signed from Crystal Palace for
� million in August last year. ?I had
two operations on my leg.
?I didn?t want to come back and just
have my name on the shirt and not be
the same kind of player, but I felt like
with a bit more match sharpness I will
be probably even better.
?It still hasn?t hit me, to be honest. It
might take a couple of games. I don?t
know when I?m going to sit down and
think to myself, ?You?re back, Yann.?
?There are times when you don?t
know when the end of the road is
coming or when you?re going to be back
training or start playing. It?s hard to see.
?When I started seeing a little bit of
light that was great for myself and this
has just been a blessing.?
Allardyce will want the 28-year-old
to add more creativity to a side who
have struggled to carve out openings in
their past two matches but have kept six
clean sheets in eight games.
Everton are interested in signing
Cenk Tosun, the Besiktas striker, in the
January transfer window. The 26-yearold Turkey player is valued at about
� million by his club.
Moyes in a hurry to bring
?balance? to West Ham
Mutko resigns as head of
World Cup organisers
David Moyes said that he could be
forced into the transfer market to try
to fix West Ham United?s ?imbalanced?
squad as he seeks to pilot them away
from 17th place in the Premier League
(James Gheerbrant writes).
?We?re lacking quality,? Moyes said.
?I?ve given players opportunities. I?m
in a hurry. I can?t wait three or four
months. We?re short on midfielders,
with few who can play on the right.?
Moyes has declared an interest in
Jack Wilshere, the Arsenal midfielder,
and Seville?s Steven N?Zonzi. Everton?s
Morgan Schneiderlin and
Bournemouth?s Harry Arter have also
been linked with West Ham.
Vitaly Mutko has quit as the 2018
World Cup organising committee?s
chairman less than six months before
the tournament begins in Russia.
Having confirmed he had
temporarily stood down as the
Russian Football Union president on
Monday, Mutko has now left the team
preparing next summer?s tournament,
with Alexey Sorokin taking over.
The resignation of Mutko, Russia?s
deputy prime minister, comes in the
month the former minister of sport
received a lifetime ban from the
International Olympic Committee
following an investigation into
allegations of state-sponsored doping.
Paul Joyce
Sterling scores
his 13th league
goal of the
season after
De Bruyne
produced yet
another brilliant
assist, inset
giving their comment on the takeover
saga between Mike Ashley and Amanda Staveley by singing ?we?re all having
a party when Ashley sells the club?. The
deal needs to be imminent so Ben韙ez
can strengthen next month. Newcastle
employ a top-six manager working
with a bottom-six squad.
Ben韙ez made his final change, introducing Merino for Chancel Mbemba,
and Newcastle attacked the Gallowgate
with even greater urgency. Ben韙ez?s
changes were having an impact. Atsu
was troubling Walker, suddenly cutting
in and lifting in a low cross to Gayle,
whose angled header drifted wide.
St James? Park was now at its best, the
Gallowgate
bellowing,
urging
Newcastle forward. Merino?s passing
was making a difference, spreading
play, but City held on, helped by
Ederson?s time-wasting. Guardiola?s
men keep defeating opponents, and
overcoming the brutal schedule.
continued from back
City make it 18 straight wins
30 minutes I?ve ever seen from a side in
the Premier League?.
Asked if he thought that Newcastle?s
approach was bad for football,
Guardiola instead focused on the
achievement of his side.
?In these 18 games we have played
against teams who have done high
pressing, low pressing, counterattacks,
just set pieces, and some like Tottenham [Hotspur] who tried to go forward
and attack,? he said. ?And in all of them
we have been able to beat them.
?The magnificent thing about
football is that any manager of any
team can play in any way. Teams can try
to trick you, but you have to be able to
beat them and until now we have been
able to do that. Until now, we have
found a way to win.?
Should he have seen red? Newcastle
winger Jacob Murphy was not even
shown a yellow card for this challenge
on Ilkay G黱dogan in the first half
Although they were touched by
fatigue in the final 15 minutes, City
remain imperious, overcoming the
demands of the hectic Christmas
Newcastle United (5-4-1): R Elliot 7 ? D Yedlin 5,
C Mbemba 7 (sub: M Merino 77min), J Lascelles 7,
P Dummett 7, J Manquillo 6 ? R Aarons 6 (sub: C Atsu
71), J Shelvey 6, M Diam� 3, J Murphy 5 ? Joselu 5
(sub: D Gayle 62, 5).
Substitutes not used C Clark, M Ritchie, A P閞ez,
K Darlow. Booked Gayle.
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson 7 ? K Walker 7,
V Kompany 5 (sub: G Jesus 11, 7), N Otamendi 7, Danilo
7 ? K De Bruyne 8, Ferdandinho 7, I G黱dogan 7 ?
B Silva 7 (sub: L San� 83), S Ag黣ro 7 (sub: E Mangala
77), R Sterling 7.
Substitutes not used C Bravo, T Adarabioyo, Y Tour�,
B Diaz.
Referee A Marriner.
schedule and coping with the impact of
another injury to Vincent Kompany,
who was substituted in the 11th minute.
?Of course this was tough,?
Guardiola said. ?But if you analyse
the 90 minutes we were much, much
better. If you analysed only the last ten
minutes when [Newcastle] crossed
once and could have scored one goal, it
might have been different, but we were
much better.
?It?s not easy to maintain our focus in
this period, everyone is on holiday,
everyone has a party at home. To be
focused after 17 games in a row is not
easy, but we did it. We started really well
after the problem with Vincent and we
are just so happy to win again.
?We are happy to break records,
because we keep having one more, one
more, but when we prepare for games,
we don?t speak about records. We
just speak about what we have to do
to win.?
68
1G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Sport The Ashes
Sport
Online today: unrivalled
coverage of all the overnight
action from Melbourne
6am
Read in-play analysis of
the opening two sessions
at the MCG
At the close
Mike Atherton?s
definitive report
on the third
day?s play
Plus
Gideon Haigh gives an
Australian perspective
while Simon Wilde adds
expert insight
9am
Reaction from the
England and Australia
camps
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Broad: I realised
Will Macpherson Melbourne
Even some firm friends and fierce
fans were writing Stuart Broad off
before the Boxing Day Test but the
England seamer found his best
figures of the year through a week of
reflection and rigorous training ?
and a shift in his bowling mindset.
Broad accepted that he had bowled
?very poorly? in the third Test in
Perth, where he was without zip,
rhythm or threat and he recorded the
worst figures of his career (0 for 142)
as England surrendered the urn.
What followed was a crucial few
days for Broad. As his old friend
James Anderson said: ?The way I?ve
seen Stuart Broad work this week has
been as hard as I?ve ever seen
someone work at their game. He?s
done the hours in the nets, working
on his technique and action.?
Broad said: ?I worked incredibly
hard this week physically and
mentally, had a few days off looking
at certain things, and ran in hard in
the nets trying to get the rhythm
back. I spent time with Colly [Paul
Collingwood] trying to look at my
strengths. It?s been a tough couple of
weeks really, but it makes playing and
taking wickets very rewarding.?
On Boxing Day he broke a wicketless run that had lasted 414 balls
across 69 overs, four innings and 23
days. He followed that up bowling
well on the second morning, trapping
Shaun Marsh and Jackson Bird in
front, then had Pat Cummins caught
behind to finish with four for 51 from
28 overs. He had bowled noticeably
fuller and believed he had been guilty
in Perth of looking to prevent boundaries rather than seek wickets.
?I worked on some mental stuff,?
he said. ?I?m a better bowler when I
attack. On a very good pitch to bat on
at the Waca I fell into the trap of
looking to not concede runs, instead
of looking to take wickets. I took a
couple of days to realise that. I need
that mentality as a bowler: ?Where is
my next wicket coming from?? Not
?Where am I going to stop the next
boundary?? It?s a small mental
change but quite a big thing for me.
I?ve run in well here thinking about
how I would get batsmen out.?
Broad said that it had been
important to keep himself away from
DIGEST
DOWN
UNDER
By Will Macpherson
Ending the year with a bang
Broad finds form with his best
figures of 2017
4-51 v Australia
Melbourne, December
3-34 v West Indies
Edgbaston, August
3-46 v South Africa
Old Trafford, August
3-49 v Australia
Brisbane, November
3-64 v South Africa
Trent Bridge, July
what was being written and said.
Michael Vaughan, with whom he
holidayed at Margaret River before
the Perth Test, had called for Joe
Root to drop Broad and he was not
alone in holding such an opinion.
?[It was] one of those weeks where
you get your tin hat on, duck down,
and don?t see much,? he said. ?I?ve
been unaware of what?s written,
what?s been said. You have to go to
that place as a sportsman, find something within yourself, build yourself
back up. You can get yourself in a
dark place if you read everything. It?s
only two weeks since I was on holiday
with him [Vaughan] so I don?t know
what he?s been saying. It?s always
been a strategy of mine to get away
from things. Christmas helps, you get
a little time away from it all.
?Things change quickly in sport,
and people have to be critical at
times. I won?t hold any grudges if
people slag me off because in 15 years?
time I might be doing the same ?
although not in six months.?
That final comment was a cheeky
Malan to captain Middlesex
South Africa win four-day
Test with two days to spare
Dawid Malan, below, has been a rare
English winner on this Ashes tour so
far, with a century in Perth and 302
runs in the first three Tests. There is
good news when he finally gets
home too, as he is set to be
announced as Middlesex?s new
captain, replacing James Franklin.
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At one stage on the
second morning, Tom
Curran was bowling
to Shaun and Mitchell
Marsh. The obvious
link between the trio
? along with Jonny Bairstow and
Stuart Broad ? is that their fathers
played international cricket. But the
Marshs and the Currans (Tom is
unlikely to be the last to play for
England) run deeper. In 2004, the
Currans were evicted from their farm
in Zimbabwe by the Mugabe regime.
They were taken in by Geoff Marsh,
then the Zimbabwe coach, and his
family in their house in Harare. There,
Mitch and the Curran brothers
became firm friends.
No day-night Test in 2019
Despite a successful first day-night
Ashes Test in Adelaide, the prospect
of a pink-ball game in the 2019 home
series looks slim after Tom Harrison,
the ECB chief executive, all but ruled
it out. ?It?s unlikely,? Harrison told
ABC. ?We?ve got a format that works
brilliantly well for us in the UK.?
The one-off pink-ball Test match
between South Africa and Zimbabwe
in Port Elizabeth, officially the first to
be scheduled to finish in four days,
was completed yesterday in not
much more than four sessions.
Zimbabwe, resuming on 30 for four
in reply to 309 for nine declared,
were bundled out for 68 and 121 on
the second day to lose by an innings
and 120 runs. Only two Test matches
have been over more quickly since
the Second World War.
?I don?t think we were
overwhelmed but . . . we didn?t assess
conditions that well,? Graeme Cremer,
captain of the lowest-ranked Test
nation, said. ?This shows us where we
are and where we need to be.?
Morne Morkel was the destroyerin-chief in Zimbabwe?s first innings
with figures of five for 21. Zimbabwe
reached 54 without loss second time
around, but then lost all ten wickets
in a single session between tea and
dinner, with Keshav Maharaj, the
left-arm spinner, taking five for 59.
South Africa begin a three-Test series
against India next week.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
69
1G M
Sport
Sport
I needed to attack
SCOTT BARBOUR/GETTY IMAGES
continued from back
Cook gives England dignity
135 behind Australia, having lost just
Mark Stoneman and James Vince on a
flat, slow surface that suited Cook as
Australia struggled with Mitchell Starc
injured and Pat Cummins unwell.
Cook was on 93 when Steve Smith,
who became debutant Tom Curran?s
first Test wicket yesterday, brought
himself on to bowl the day?s final over.
It took only four balls for Cook to move
to his 32nd Test hundred from 164 balls
and he followed it with an emotional
celebration. Broad said that Cook had
been unfazed by the criticism he had
received on this tour, and had no doubt
that runs would come in time.
?The celebrations in the changing
room when he got that hundred were
huge, that?s testament to the way he is,?
Broad said. ?He?s a calm character,
doesn?t get fazed or down. He went
through so much stuff with his captaincy that I?m not sure a bit of stick about
not getting runs is going to bother him
too much. He?s a tough character and
things were going to go his way
eventually. He has always had these
periods in his career when he might not
have scored the runs he wants, then he
gets a really big score.?
Broad said that he and Cook had
been forced to dig deep to produce a
performance and that even after more
than 100 Test matches and hosts of
broken records they had felt that they
were playing for their careers. Broad is
three wickets away from becoming the
second Englishman to reach 400 Test
wickets after James Anderson, while in
reaching 104 not out, Cook passed
Mahela Jayawardena to reach 11,816
Test runs. He is eighth on the all-time
list.
?Every time you step on the field you
are pretty much playing for your
career,? Broad said. ?It shows a huge
amount of character to be under that
sort of scrutiny and pressure and come
out and deliver any sort of performance, let alone a hundred like Cooky
just has.
?I don?t think you play this much
international sport without some kind
of deep inner self-confidence that you
can call on when you are very low. Both
of us have put in strong performances
over these two days. Now we need three
more fantastic days to win this Test.?
Second day, session by session
Broad enjoys
being back in
the wickets as
Shaun Marsh is
out leg-before
riposte to suggestions that he could
find himself commentating on the
game rather than playing it imminently, but Broad says he always felt
that his form would return.
?You have periods where things
happen for you,? he said. ?Umpire?s
call, slashes through slips going to
hand . . . sometimes they don?t. All
you can do as a sportsman is make
sure you are looking to improve and
that you are competitive. I was not as
competitive as I should have been in
Perth. I wanted to improve that.?
Anderson enters top five Test wicket-takers
kers
1. M Muralitharan (SL)
800
2. S Warne (Aus)
708
08
3. A Kumble (India)
4. G McGrath (Aus)
5. J Anderson (Eng)
619
563
521
GAME ON
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Morning
A fine session for
England, is sparked by
the lucky dismissal of
Steve Smith by Tom
Curran, below. He drags
the ball on, as does
Mitchell Marsh (to Chris
Woakes, also cutting)
and Tim Paine (to
James Anderson,
pulling). Paine?s wicket
takes Anderson past
Courtney Walsh to 520,
and second on the list
of Test fast-bowling
wicket-takers. Stuart
Broad dismisses Shaun
Marsh ? who had just
passed 50 ? and
Jackson Bird, both lbw.
Broad, an infamously
poor judge of a review,
even gets a not out
decision overturned to
dismiss Marsh.
Score: Australia 326-8.
Runs 82. Wickets: 5.
RR: 3.15
Afternoon
Broad gets his fourth
wicket (his best return
of 2017), Pat Cummins
caught at first slip, with
the second ball after
lunch. Anderson has
Nathan Lyon lbw,
Australia are all out for
327, losing their last
seven wickets for 83
yesterday.
England start
well, with only
y
Mark Stoneman
falling by tea. He
makes 15 before
chipping back to Lyon
? who took another
brilliant caught and
bowled ? off the
leading edge.
Cummins is
struggling
badly with a
stomach bug,
while Alastair
Cook looks in
fluent form and
has 37 ? his equal
highest score of the
series.
Score: Australia
327; England 74-1.
Runs 75. Wickets
3. RR: 2.78
Will Macpherson
Evening
James Vince falls to the
first ball he faces of the
session, plumb in front
to Josh Hazlewood but,
had he reviewed, DRS
would have revealed he
hit it. Cook and Joe Root
build a partnership, with
a stand of 100 arriving
in 30 overs. Cook is
dropped on 66
by Smith ?
whose line of
sight is
obscured by
Paine ? at slip
off Mitchell
Marsh. Root
ends the day
on 49, but
Cook reaches
a 32nd Test
hundred
after Smith
brings
himself on
to bowl.
Score:
England
E
1192-2. Runs:
118. Wickets: 1.
11
R 3.47
RR:
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70
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Sport The Ashes
Sport
Cook and Broad
remind the critics
they are not done
Mike Atherton
Chief Cricket
Correspondent
Melbourne
Australia v England
Melbourne (second day of five) England, with eight
first-innings wickets in hand, are 135 runs behind
Australia
Australian captains are not known for
their generosity but, with Alastair Cook
seven short of his hundred as the last
over of the day dawned, Steve Smith
presented him with a belated
Christmas gift, wrapping, tinsel and
all, by bringing himself on to bowl.
A full toss, leg-stump half-volley and
long hop later, Cook had his 32nd Test
hundred and a full house of hundreds
across Australia?s five main Test
grounds. His relief, and England?s, was
palpable as he, and they, ended their
best day of the tour. Given that Smith
had earlier spilt Cook at slip, England?s
greatest run-getter had much to thank
Australia?s captain for.
Before the Melbourne Test, with the
Ashes gone and spirits sinking at home,
England had reached the ?something
must be done? stage. Variously, there
were calls for senior players to be
dropped and a wholesale cull, mainly
based not on cricketing logic but on the
need to do something, anything, rather
than nothing.
It would have been tempting for
England?s management to cave in to
public sentiment ? much as happened
in 2013-14 when throwing young
players into the mix made things worse,
not better ? much harder in some ways
to retain faith in struggling senior
players. Their inaction has so far been
vindicated, with the tried and tested to
the fore over two competitive days of
cricket.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad
shared seven of the Australia wickets to
fall, five of them on an excellent second
morning for England in which
Australia lost their last seven wickets
for 67 ? a very English-style collapse
? following the early and entirely
unexpected dismissal of Smith. Cook
then shaped England?s reply with his
most fluent batting of the series, sharing a 112-run partnership with Joe Root
who, though never fluent, was better
balanced than of late.
Anderson has upheld expectations to
a large degree ? with the wicket of Tim
Paine, he went past Courtney Walsh,
leaving only Glenn McGrath of fast
bowlers ahead of him on the all-time
list ? but Broad and Cook have been,
along with Moeen Ali, the biggest disappointments of the tour. Broad?s four
wickets, then, were timely and represented his best return of the year, while
Cook moved more confidently into the
ball than he has done at any stage previously. Ali? He remained wicketless, was
scantily used and will need some runs
to justify his continued involvement.
At 33 and 31 respectively, neither
Cook nor Broad is old in years, but they
have plenty of miles on the clock. Both
have been questioned in contrasting
ways: Cook?s desire, rather than his
ability, has been queried, while Broad?s
pace, or lack of it, has raised the possibility that time is running short. The
first is guesswork ? only Cook knows
how strong his desire is ? while the
second has been based on genuine evidence, not all of which was dispelled
yesterday, despite a four-wicket haul. It
was good to see both in the mix, scrapping for their captain and their team.
Cook?s return to form was the most
heartening aspect of the day. Before the
Perth Test he had put his philosophy in
disarmingly simple terms (?I try my
bollocks off, really,? he had said) but
here it was apparent that as well as
trying his damnedest, there was a little
more freedom about his play, too.
Maybe he had been trying too hard
before and he relaxed a touch and
expressed himself a little more.
Possibly, the realisation that the new
ball is the best time to bat on this pitch
helped him to be more positive in his
footwork and intentions. Reverse swing
had helped Broad and Anderson get a
sliver of lateral movement earlier in the
day and Australia found similar movement because of the abrasiveness of the
surface, from around the 20th over. By
this stage Cook was into the 40s and
Day two scoreboard
Australia: First Innings (overnight 244-3)
C T Bancroft lbw b Woakes.....................26
D A Warner c Bairstow b Anderson....103
U T Khawaja c Bairstow b Broad .......... 17
*S P D Smith b Curran................................ 76
S E Marsh lbw b Broad............................... 61
M R Marsh b Woakes.................................... 9
?T D Paine b Anderson..............................24
P J Cummins c Cook b Broad...................4
J M Bird lbw b Broad..................................... 4
J R Hazlewood not out................................. 1
N M Lyon lbw b Anderson......................... 0
Extras (lb 1, nb 1)...............................................2
Total (119 overs).................................... 327
Fall of wickets 1-122, 2-135, 3-160,
4-260, 5-278, 6-314, 7-318, 8-325, 9-326,
10-327.
Bowling Anderson 29-11-61-3;
Broad 28-10-51-4; Woakes 22-4-72-2;
Ali 12-0-57-0; Curran 21-5-65-1;
Malan 7-1-20-0.
England: First Innings
A N Cook not out........................................104
M D Stoneman c and b Lyon...................15
J M Vince lbw b Hazlewood.....................17
*J E Root not out........................................... 49
Extras (b 4, nb 3).............................................. 7
Total (2 wkts, 57 overs)....................... 192
D J Malan, ?J M Bairstow, M M Ali,
C R Woakes, T K Curran, S C J Broad,
and J M Anderson to bat.
Fall of wickets 1-35, 2-80.
Bowling Hazlewood 12-2-39-1;
Bird 12-2-38-0; Lyon 17-2-44-1;
Cummins 11-0-39-0; M Marsh 4-0-17-0;
Smith 1-0-11-0.
Umpires H D P K Dharmasena
(Sri Lanka) and S Ravi (India).
Third umpire J Wilson (West Indies).
Series: First Test Australia won by ten
wickets (Brisbane). Second Test
Australia won by 120 runs (Adelaide).
Third Test Australia won by an innings
and 41 runs (Perth). Fifth Test Jan 4-8
(Sydney).
had already unfurled seven boundaries,
including three rarely sighted straight
drives off the front foot.
The hunt for reverse swing and the
turgid nature of the pitch shaped the
style of cricket played. Captains kept
slips to a minimum unless a new
batsman was at the crease, posted
catchers in front of, rather than behind
the wicket, gave the bowlers cover on
the leg side, allowing them to pitch
straight looking for lbws and the
stumps. Of the nine wickets to fall in the
day, three were bowled, all drag-ons in
the morning, and four were leg-before.
England could be thankful, then, that
Mitchell Starc, Australia?s best exponent of manipulating the scarred ball,
was not playing and Smith was also
hampered by an illness to Pat Cummins, who was variously on and off the
field with nausea, below full speed
when he did bowl and who generally
looked very sorry for himself throughout, taking regular ministrations on the
boundary edge. Without Starc?s variety
and Cummins? speed, the attack had a
more humdrum quality.
It feels like the best opportunity, then,
for England to achieve a first firstinnings lead in the series, essential you
would think if a winning position is to
be forged. They lost Mark Stoneman to
a fine return catch by Nathan Lyon and
James Vince leg-before to Josh Hazlewood ? evidence suggested an inside
edge ? and might have lost Cook, too,
had Smith not fumbled a catch at first
slip off Mitchell Marsh when the batsman had made 66. Smith is normally a
sure hand in that position, but with
Paine standing up to the stumps
because of the slowness of the pitch,
Smith could have been unsighted for a
short while.
That was the only chance Cook gave
in an otherwise assured stay and Root
was thankful for the familiar sight at the
other end. And it was a familiar sight by
the evening session, with Cook very
much back in the groove, clipping with
precision through the leg side, cutting
clinically through the off and playing
Lyon with far more conviction than he
had done at Adelaide.
The day?s most significant event,
though, involved a rookie rather than a
regular and came in the eighth over of
the morning, when Smith chopped a
wide long hop from Tom Curran onto
his stumps, adding just 11 to his overnight score. Smith?s record at the MCG
is such that he would regard 76 as a
relative failure and his departure once
again highlighted the reality that there
are two Australia teams at the moment,
one when Smith is batting, and the
other when he?s not.
The back of Smith certainly spurred
Broad into action, turning his overnight figures of 19-6-41-1 into 28-1051-4 and answering a few critics in the
process. He picked up the other key
wicket of the morning when he moved
one fractionally back into Shaun
Marsh, winning a leg-before decision.
With Cummins caught at slip and Jackson Bird leg-before, Broad moved to
397 Test wickets.
Along with Cook?s 32nd Test hundred, England were reeling off the right
kind of statistics for once.
Stalwart gets a helping
hand from captain Smith
With Alastair Cook on 66 and desperately looking to go on and make a first
Ashes century for seven years, the England opening batsman was in receipt
of some uncharacteristic assistance from Steve Smith when the Australia
captain dropped him at first slip off the bowling of Mitchell Marsh
England?s leading Test
Cook and Broad played
with positivity and an
edge they had lacked,
writes Gideon Haigh
Cricket is often called an individual
game in a team setting. In which case,
the term ?dead? Test will always be a
misnomer. There will always be personal points to prove, singular purposes to
be pursued. It even makes a certain
sense in this context that England,
relieved of the Ashes, have an edge in
this fourth Test: their individuals have
by far the most ground to make up.
It was hard to choose who had the
poorer Waca Test out of Alastair Cook
and Stuart Broad. The pitch seemed
simultaneously too fast for Cook and
too slow for Broad, the Australians too
much for either, and the Ashes too hot
to hold.
They are cricketers of a certain age,
with great records, and maybe also
dwindling motivations. No Englishman
has scored more Test runs than Cook;
only one has taken more wickets than
Broad. Where else to go? What else to
prove? There was even a school of
thought that England might do without
them in Melbourne, although it was not
obvious who would take their places.
They had toiled in the nets before the
game like ascetics. ?Dead? Test? Not
here, not now, not for either man.
If Cook?s 150th Test had looked
perilously like a cricket funeral, his 151st
has now unfolded into a disarmingly
cheerful wake. His 32nd Test century
was no dogged entrenchment. It was
positive, even in defence, his body
forming strong shapes, his bat erecting
broad barriers.
For a batsman otherwise so prudent,
too, Cook rather revels in the hook and
pull, which he?s prepared to play in the
air ? sometimes, as in Brisbane, to his
cost. Yesterday, he was determined to
get it right. First, he almost dragged
Jackson Bird on; next he miscued Josh
Hazlewood; at last, as Pat Cummins
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
71
2G M
Sport
Sport
WILLIAM WEST/GETTY IMAGES
Slow pitch helped the opener
The wagon wheel for Alastair Cook?s scoring zones shows how
slow the pitch was. A strong player off the back foot, he would
often make runs behind square, but Cook scored 30 runs
through the mid-wicket area and 27 through the covers.
A big hit at every Aussie venue
Cook now has centuries at all five leading grounds in Australia.
Sunil Gavaskar is the only other touring player to have done so
His centuries in Australia
(Ave: 46.09* ? better than
career Test average of 45.97)
The Gabba, Nov 2010
235*
SCG, Jan 2011
189
Adelaide Oval, Dec 2010
148
Waca, Dec 2006
116
MCG, Dec 2017
104*
His best efforts in home
Ashes Tests (Ave: 29.60)
Lord?s, July 2015
96
The Oval, Aug 2015
85
Old Trafford, Aug 2013
62
Chester-le-Street, Aug 2013
51
Trent Bridge, July 2013
50
Edgbaston, July 2015
34
Headingley, Aug 2009
30
Cardiff, July 2015
20
11,816
151
Tests for Cook, five behind
seventh-placed Allan Border
Cook moved past Mahela
Jayawardena to become the
eighth highest Test runscorer
of all time. Shivnarine
Chanderpaul (11,867) and
Brian Lara (11,953) are the
next on the list. The 8,900
scored by Graham Gooch, in
15th, is the next best by an
English batsman
runscorer grabs chance to show he has appetite for more
dropped short, he nailed it, and flourishingly ? had the shot peeled from
Kevin Pietersen?s bat it would have been
called flamboyant.
Cook followed up with a cover drive
off the front foot ? a shot he essays
rarely. It was not seen again, but after
further boundaries down the ground
and through gully, Steve Smith posted a
deep backward point, two-thirds of the
way to the rope. Still more surprisingly,
Cook picked out the man three times,
for long singles. Good captaincy, but
also a tiny concession ? Australia?s
captain, with the Ashes in his pocket,
was defending, against Cook, as his
formidable pacemen bowled.
Luck came Cook?s way, as it must:
Smith shelled an edge at slip, perhaps
unsighted by Tim Paine, the wicketkeeper, who had just gone up to the
stumps. As the day ended, Smith sought
to prey on a memory, having ended a
long Cook vigil with minutes of a day to
go during the 2015 Oval Test. This time,
however, he provided an over of dross,
enabling Cook to add another record to
his hoard ? a century at each Australian Test venue at which he has played.
Actually, the Australia attack for the
first time this summer seemed
stretched. Mitchell Starc was unavoidably missed. From lengths where the ball
had flown in Perth, nicks were barely
carrying to slip. Though he executed
another of his India rubber man return
catches, Nathan Lyon obtained more
turn when he heaved a beach ball back
into the crowd.
Hazlewood plugged away nobly, but
Bird and Mitchell Marsh could find
little assistance, while Cummins was
reportedly stricken with stomach
trouble. His second ball after tea was an
83mph half-tracker that Cook yanked
through mid-wicket as though knocking off a flower with a walking stick.
When Cook punched the last ball of the
over through the off side, Cummins
seized his sun hat and glasses dreaming
of a palm tree at fine leg to lie under.
It was not as the day had begun. The
overnight Australian batsmen materialised by the gate at 10.22am, eight min-
utes before the scheduled resumption, on a day forecast to reach
35C. Shaun Marsh had
his lid screwed on;
Smith was performing
flexes and squats.
There was a hint of avidity about the Australians att
the crease, after their advancee
at 2.7 runs per over on the firstt
day. Smith became the first of
three to drag attacking shots
onto their stumps. Marsh
planted his front leg
and perished on
d
review; Lyon played
around his, requested
a review, then
promptly
headed off.
England?s
bowlers, who havee
ntt
looked at times content
with a situation of armed neutrality pursued directions
more aggressive ? and, as
Brian Statham once philosophised,
what?s the point of running in 30
y
yards
to watch a batsman shoulder
arms?
Experienced
B
Broad
watchers on
the first day had reported more of
t old pump of his knees and pull
the
of his levers. It was complemented
o the second with more presence,
on
more of his old villainy.
Early on, Broad picked up a ball in
his follow-through, backhanded at
t striker?s stumps and broke them,
the
even if Smith and Marsh spoiled
the moment by taking a run. Broad
seethed, stalked back, and kept
running in, appreciably faster
on this far slower pitch than in
Perth ? a rough measure of
effect, but not an unreliable one. He did not
Cook played
with a real
flourish in
making his
32nd century
squander energy on bouncers, was prepared to be driven, and collected two
lbws. His nine wickets in this series have
still cost 40 each. But by bridging the
long gap between the fifth and sixth, he
has established something to build on.
For Australia, of course, there is the
opposite challenge to England?s. They
have secured the prize after giving their
all, which leaves only hidden reserves
to draw on. There has not been an endof-school feeling to their cricket these
past two days, but maybe an end-ofterm one, and becomingly so: they applauded Cook?s milestone last night
with gratifying generosity.
Bear in mind that England had their
best, or least bad, moments of the 201314 Ashes here in similar circumstances,
3-0 down: they secured a first-innings
lead before slumping by eight wickets.
Yet the story of the Ashes itself contains
the possibility, if not the promise, of rebirth, and it?s been a pleasure to watch
two fine players live again.
6 Gideon Haigh is a columnist for The
Australian
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
2G M
Sport
Murray flies out
Briton arrives in Abu Dhabi to
practise after injury struggles
Tennis, page 61
thetimes.co.uk/sport
JASON O?BRIEN/PA
City make it 18
straight wins
Cook century
gives England
some dignity
George Caulkin
Pep Guardiola praised his recordbreaking Manchester City players
for ?finding a way to win? whomever
the opponents and whatever the
circumstances.
City took their run of consecutive
Premier League victories to 18 at
St James? Park last night, stretching
their lead over Manchester United to
15 points.
Guardiola?s team, who have now
equalled the English top-flight record
of 11 consecutive away wins, set by
Chelsea in 2008, narrowly beat
Newcastle United 1-0 thanks to a
goal by Raheem Sterling in the 31st
minute.
City were forced to overcome a
defensive performance from Newcastle
that Gary Neville, the Sky Sports
pundit, described as ?the most negative
Will Macpherson Melbourne
Alastair Cook rose from his slump
in form to complete a memorable
century in the final over of a
strong second day for England in
the fourth Test.
Cook, who turned 33 on
Christmas Day and is playing his
151st Test, and Stuart Broad had
been suffering from poor form in
the series and were facing
questions about how long their
careers would last. But with Cook
reaching his first score of more
than 37 in 11 Test innings and
Broad?s best figures of the year
(four for 51) helping to restrict
Australia to 327 all out after losing
their last seven wickets for 67 runs,
they stood up, even though it is
too late to retain the Ashes.
England ended the second day
Continued on page 67
Wenger has no
pity for United
Continued on page 69
Gary Jacob
Liverpool sign �m Van Dijk
Hotspur for Kyle Walker, will wear the
No 4 jersey.
Liverpool had been forced to abandon interest in Van Dijk in the summer
amid concerns that they would be
charged with tapping up the player
after Southampton complained to the
Premier League about their conduct.
Van Dijk, who is likely to be at Anfield
on Saturday when J黵gen Klopp?s side
face Leicester City, did not give up on
his ambition to play for Liverpool and
has overlooked City?s interest once
again to achieve it.
Southampton?s reluctance to part
with the centre back in the summer
gave way to a desire to maximise his fee
before the new transfer window after he
was dropped from manager Mauricio
Pellegrino?s line-up. Liverpool were
always prepared to pay what it took to
land their top defensive target.
Van Dijk underwent a medical at the
Ars鑞e Wenger has said that he has
little sympathy for Jos� Mourinho after
his claim that spending �0 million on
transfers was not enough for
Manchester United to compete for the
Premier League title.
The Arsenal manager said that he
had faced the challenge of competing
with bigger-spending clubs, including
Chelsea when they were managed by
Mourinho, throughout his 21 years in
charge.
Wenger broke Arsenal?s transfer
record to sign Alexandre Lacazette for
� million in the summer, but player
sales meant that the club made a profit
of nearly � million. The outlay was
dwarfed by Mourinho, who spent
�0.7 million at United, and Manchester City, who spent �4.1 million, also
Continued on page 65
Continued on page 64
across
down
Yesterday?s solution 26,919
1 Cheap stuff in pile, ?rst in sale to go
(4)
3 Modern aid?s worked out what
letters of anagram could be (10)
9 Chap?s by a road constructing top
of building (7)
11 Treacherous type, very French,
about to ensnare writer (7)
12 Put an end to careless action on
cricket ?eld? (9)
13 Money needed for memorial (5)
14 Rite actually interpreted in an
eloquent manner (12)
18 Sort of student job to jar ? notice
university intervening (12)
21 Sound from King Charles ? where
was he hiding? (5)
22 Home boy returning without
money? They should not be
blamed (9)
24 Blank space in print is most
important (7)
25 Time in good English town gets
one indulging (7)
26 Way to take stuff to market (5,5)
27 Writer Dorothy avoiding extremes
as a philosopher (4)
1 Like some in Lords, having spoken
with a small degree of heat to start
with (8)
2 Previously king in court would
want old instrumental piece (8)
4 Tree with less on top? No top at all!
(5)
5 Spooner?s desire, girl becoming the
epitome of dullness (9)
6 Front of cafe I admire built badly,
strange to say (8,5)
7 Understand wise words and
oscillate (6)
8 Hate exam after getting low grades
(6)
10 Like a sort of movement that goes
back in time? (13)
15 Giving up in turn after renting
property (7,2)
16 Above river supply rope for
support? (8)
17 One to argue back, boy ending in
trouble kept in (8)
19 Cat in church, see, hiding in books
there? (6)
20 Piece of music with a beat bigger
than usual coming up (6)
23 Man?s heading off when it?s time to
retire (5)
Klopp beats City to land coveted centre back as Southampton agree to sell for world-record fee
Paul Joyce
Northern Football Correspondent
Virgil van Dijk became the world?s most
expensive defender yesterday after
Liverpool fended off interest from
Manchester City to strike a stunning
� million deal with Southampton for
the 26-year-old.
The Holland centre back said that he
was ?honoured? to be moving to ?one of
the biggest clubs in world football?
after negotiations between the clubs
reached an agreement.
Van Dijk will be a Liverpool player
when the transfer window opens on
New Year?s Day and is in line to make
his debut in the FA Cup third-round tie
with Everton a week tomorrow.
He has signed a five-and-a-half-year
deal that will run until the summer of
2023 and is worth about �0,000 a
week. Van Dijk, whose fee outstrips the
� million that City paid Tottenham
Times Crossword 26,920
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GA E L I
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E F F E ND
S O
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T A U T
R N O
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A
T UR T L E
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P
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I
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C
H
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C
K
E
N
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S L
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D P E R
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A R Y
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I N E
N R
WA Y
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P
I RM I
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D E N T
C O
S K E L
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F E
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P A
C
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L A
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S H
E
A
R
E T
GH
A
C T
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R A
W
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Y
Y
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E R
P
S H
A
ON
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these
values are questioned.
We
have
already
changed six managers
in the league [this
season]. But if you
change 20, you
have
still
three clubs
who go
2012
2014

100
90
80
70
60
50
Kyle Walker
40
�m
Tottenham 30
to Man City
20
10
2017
2017
0
down, only one who will win the championship. Technical stability is something that is important. Maybe the
clubs need to be stronger to resist that.?
Wenger has hinted that Jack
Wilshere may need to accept a pay cut
to agree a new contract beyond the
summer. Wenger had said that he
would decide this month whether to
offer the midfielder a deal. Wilshere
earns about �0,000-a-week if he
plays. ?I?ll sit down with Jack and I
believe that, if we can meet a
point of agreement financially,
he will want to stay,? he said.
Crystal Palace, who
shocked Arsenal with a
3-0 victory in this fixt
ture
last season, will
have Christian Benteke
b
back
to lead the front
l
line
after suspension.
Wenger says that he
could never have
imagined spending
21 years at Arsenal
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
65
2G M
Sport
DAVID BLUNSDEN/GETTY IMAGES
He is right: in defence of
Mourinho and his moaning
United have become
better under him
and have spent less
money than rivals City,
explains Paul Hirst
Playing it out of defence
Klopp likes his centre backs to be
comfortable on the ball ? and the
new man may have to up his game
Player
Ragnar Klavan
Jo雔 Matip
Dejan Lovren
Virgil van Dijk
Joe Gomez
continued from back
Defender completes �m deal
Nuffield Hospital in Bournemouth
after negotiations were finalised and he
later posted a message on social media,
saying: ?Delighted and honoured to
have agreed to become a Liverpool FC
player!
?Today is a proud day for me and my
family as I join one of the biggest clubs
in world football. I can?t wait to pull on
the famous red shirt for the first time in
front of the Kop. And [I] will give
everything I have to try and help this
great club achieve something special in
the years to come.?
The interest from Pep Guardiola, the
City head coach, was significant and a
City official contacted Southampton
Passing accuracy
90.63%
89.46%
87.8%
85.78%
84.09%
recently to check on Van Dijk?s
availability. His desire to play under
Klopp and the asking price proved to
be obstacles.
It is likely that Guardiola will now try
to proceed with a deal for I駃go
Mart韓ez, the Real Sociedad defender
who has a release clause of � million,
or Jonny Evans, whom they were
unable to prise from West Bromwich
Albion in the summer.
The fallout between Southampton
and Liverpool in June meant that the
south-coast club had initially been
reluctant to do business. Yet Klopp?s
determination to land a player whom
he believes will bolster his defence
meant that Southampton?s hopes of
fleshing out their asking price were best
served by inviting Liverpool to the
negotiating table.
Henderson could miss a month
Paul Joyce
Liverpool could be without Jordan
Henderson for the bulk of their January
programme as they fret over his
hamstring injury.
The midfielder missed the 5-0 win
over Swansea City and J黵gen Klopp,
the Liverpool manager, has already
ruled his captain out of Saturday?s
home game with Leicester City and the
New Year?s Day trip to Burnley.
Henderson may be absent for up to a
month and miss six matches as a result
of the injury that he suffered against
Arsenal last Friday, which forced him
off after 13 minutes.
Meanwhile, Klopp has told Trent
Alexander-Arnold that he must only
stay down if he is injured. AlexanderArnold scored his first league goal for
the club against Swansea, but Klopp
spoke to the youngster after he failed to
get up immediately after being caught
accidentally by Jordan Ayew?s elbow.
?He was pleased with the
performance and especially the goal,?
Alexander-Arnold said. ?I got an elbow
to the face and he said unless my nose
is broken I need to get up straight away.
That is one for the future and when I get
an elbow I will be straight back up.?
The teenager has, nevertheless,
made exceptional progress since his full
Premier League debut against
Manchester United in January. ?I am
really proud,? the 19-year-old said. ?It
started well with the Man United game
and I?ve pushed on really well since
then. It all came from the manager?s
trust.?
Liverpool defender Jon Flanagan has
been charged with assault for an incident in the early hours of December 22.
He is due to appear at Liverpool
magistrates? court on Tuesday.
A day after Jos� Mourinho?s latest
outburst, the message from within the
corridors of power at Old Trafford
regarding their manager remained the
same: the Manchester United hierarchy are convinced that the club are
moving forward under his stewardship.
When you boil down the figures, it
is easy to see why they have come to
this conclusion. Despite Mourinho?s
gloomy expression, life is not all that
bad for United fans at the moment.
Mourinho?s side have accumulated
43 points from 20 games. That is the
highest number of points gained by
United at this stage of the season since
Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. A 43point tally would have been enough to
put United top of the table at this stage
of the campaign in six of the 25 Premier
League seasons that preceded this one.
Indeed, if United continue accruing
points at their current rate of 2.15 per
game, they will end the season with 82.
That would have been enough to win
the league on seven occasions since the
Premier League reduced in size from 22
teams to 20 in 1995. Ferguson?s great
Treble-winning side of the 1998-99
season managed only 79 points.
It is easy to forget that United have
lost only three times in the league this
season. They need to score only six
more times to match Louis van Gaal?s
miserly total of 49 in his final season
in charge.
United are through to the knockout
stages of the Champions League after
topping their group and they have won
two major trophies since Van Gaal left.
That is two more than J黵gen Klopp
has won in almost two and a half years
at Liverpool and two more than Mauricio Pochettino has managed since he
took over at Tottenham Hotspur in
2015. The problem for Mourinho is, of
course, that this is no ordinary season,
and that his most bitter rival, Pep
Guardiola, is in charge of the Manchester City team who are running away
with the league.
It must have been difficult for Mourinho to stand on the touchline at Old
Trafford on Boxing Day and be branded a ?shit Guardiola? by the Burnley
supporters, who were rejoicing after
their team had taken a 2-0 lead.
Mourinho and Guardiola may have
exchanged handshakes after City?s
derby win at Old Trafford almost three
weeks ago, but there still exists an
enmity between the two managers.
And as far as Mourinho is concerned,
Guardiola has been given considerably
more backing than him in the transfer
market. The numbers add up. City have
spent around �1 million since
Guardiola arrived 18 months ago, while
Mourinho
has
spent
around
� million less over the same period.
Mourinho was widely criticised
for claiming that �0 million was
?not enough? to make United
challengers, but he has a point. He
inherited a mish-mash squad,
weakened by many years off
ill-advised investment.
David Moyes?s only notablee
d
signings were Juan Mata and
h
Marouane Fellaini. United paid the
price for his indecisiveness. Of the 12
signings made by Van Gaal, six have left
and the only match-winner among
How United have improved
Unlike Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal, United have more
points after 20 matches than last season. The problem is, so do City
Pts last season
This season
42
39
49
44
42
40
58
43
42
38
37
34
Man City
Man Utd
Chelsea
Liverpool
Tottenham
Arsenal*
Difference
U 16
U4
V -7
V -6
V -5
V -6
*After 19 games
Where points would have put them
United?s 43 points this season would have put them top at the same
stage in 2015-16 and lifted them in other recent campaigns.
Season
Pts and position
16-17
15-16
14-15
13-14
12-13*
39pts ? 6th
33pts ? 5th
37pts ? 3rd
34pts ? 7th
49pts ? 1st
Position with this
season?s tally
U 3rd
U 1st
X 3rd
U 3rd
V 2nd
*Sir Alex Ferguson?s last season
them who remains is Anthony Martial.
Before Guardiola arrived at City, Kevin
De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and
Nicol醩 Otamendi had a year to bed in.
Fernandinho had been playing in the
Premier League for three seasons
before Guardiola took charge. Such
players provided a foundation for the
Catalan to work with before he added
the stardust with the signings of Leroy
How Big Six splashed cash
Top clubs? net spend in the past
three transfer windows (� millions)
Sum 16 Jan 17 Sum 17
Man City
Man Utd
Chelsea
Arsenal
Liverpool
Spurs
163
136.7
103.4
75.5
-6.8
31.3
26.7
-38.5
-57.8
0.04
-4
-4.5
134.1
130.7
40.7
-20
69.9
11.5
Total
323.8
228.9
86.3
55.54
59.1
38.3
San�, Gabriel Jesus, Kyle Walker,
Ederson and John Stones.
David Silva and Sergio Ag黣ro
already had vast experience by the time
Guardiola?s reign began, while in the
last few years of Ferguson?s reign
United spent money on quick fixes such
as Robin van Persie and Michael Owen,
or cut-price options such as Javier
Hern醤dez and Chris Smalling.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of
Mourinho?s situation is that the United
board do not expect to make any signings in the transfer window, which
means that he is stuck with what is essentially a bunch of mediocre players,
plus three or four who stand out from
the rest, until the end of the season.
Mourinho is worried about the lack
of technical quality within his squad
and he has a point. The likes of Daley
Blind, Matteo Darmian and Marcos
Rojo are hardly outstanding players,
and Mourinho has done well to get
them performing at their present levels.
Ashley Young has had an excellent
season, but probably would not get on
City?s bench.
It is also understood that Mourinho
harbours concerns about the mental
fragility of some players. He feels that
some of them lack the fight to deal with
the pressure of playing for a top club.
Mourinho is to blame for this to a
certain extent. The constant public
criticism of his players has inspired
some, but has disheartened others.
The Portuguese is not everyone?s
cup of tea at United. There are those
within the club who fear he views this
job as a short-term project. But he
remains a well-respected figure
within the dressing room. The
p
players largely hold him in high
regard thanks to the fact that he
has won 25 trophies during his
career. Some may struggle to
w
warm
to him personally, but
th
h
there
is an acceptance that United will
start adding more trophies under his
leadership if his plans are adhered to.
Mourinho is well respected in United?s
dressing room for winning 25 trophies
66
2G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Sport Football
Sterling delivers again for
Henry Winter
How they stand
Chief Football
Writer
Newcastle United
Manchester City
Sterling 31
0
2
1
Premier League
Pep Guardiola went into his office at
the Manchester City Football Academy
on Boxing Day and ran his eye over the
first-team calendar before departing
for Newcastle. He saw the intensification of fixtures, including Sunday?s trip
to Crystal Palace and then the home
league game with Watford, Burnley in
the FA Cup, a journey to Liverpool in
the league and ?then the Carabao Cup
in January and the Champions League
in February? interwoven with more
league games. ?I see the schedule and I
want to escape,? Guardiola said.
He was talking after another victory,
City?s 18th league win in a row, leaving
them only one behind Bayern Munich?s
record for European leagues set under
him in 2013-14; Guardiola is such an
accomplished coach, the greatest of the
past decade, that he is now chasing his
own records.
His phenomenal City have taken 58
points from a possible 60 this season,
have a goal difference of plus 49, and
are 15 points clear of Jos� Mourinho?s
second-placed Manchester United. But
Guardiola?s thoughts were of the games
ahead, the forbidding bleak midwinter
of English football, a league urgently
needing a break in January.
It seems the only English opponent
capable of slowing Guardiola?s
formidable machine could be the crazy
calendar. Exhaustion could be City?s
only significant enemy. Guardiola says
that he will continue to rotate, and will
have no choice as injuries bite and
form fluctuates. Vincent Kompany
sustained an injury for the 39th
time. Gabriel Jesus is off thee
pace, temporarily mislayd
ing his goal touch. David
Silva has been excused duties for
personal reasons. John Stones has still
to return from injury. Benjamin Mendy
remains out.
Guardiola can still strengthen next
month, with Alexis S醤chez and Jonny
Evans obvious targets, and promote
from the youth ranks, including
Brahim D韆z and Tosin Adarabioyo
who were on the bench last night.
Phil Foden will return from injury.
Guardiola is reliant on a small group of
marvellously consistent performers
from Ederson in goal to Nicol醩
P
Man City .......... 20
Man United ..... 20
Chelsea............20
Liverpool.........20
Tottenham.......20
Arsenal...............19
Burnley..............20
Leicester...........20
Everton..............20
Watford.............20
Huddersfield...20
Brighton............20
Stoke..................20
Southampton..20
Newcastle.........20
C Palace ............. 19
West Ham.........20
Bournemouth.20
West Brom ....... 20
Swansea............20
W
19
13
13
10
11
10
9
7
7
7
6
5
5
4
5
4
4
4
2
3
NEWCASTLE
D
1
4
3
8
4
4
6
6
6
4
5
6
5
7
3
6
6
5
9
4
L F A GDPts
0 61 12 49 58
3 43 16 27 43
4 34 14 20 42
2 46 23 23 38
5 39 20 19 37
5 34 23 11 34
5 18 17 1 33
7 30 30 0 27
7 24 30 -6 27
9 29 35 -6 25
9 18 32 -14 23
9 15 25 -10 21
10 23 41 -18 20
9 20 30 -10 19
12 19 30 -11 18
9 16 29 -13 18
10 22 38 -16 18
11 18 31 -13 17
9 14 27 -13 15
13 11 31 -20 13
MAN CITY
POSSESSION
22%
78%
TOTAL ATTEMPTS
5
18
ATTEMPTS ON TARGET
2
6
CORNERS
3
8
FOULS
6
11
TOTAL PASSES
228
824
Kompany was
taken off after
11 minutes
with another
injury
Otamendi at centre back, Kyle Walker
at right back, Raheem Sterling on the
wing and, most influentially, Kevin De
Bruyne.
The Belgian is the best player in
English football at present, registering
his ninth assist last night, creating
Sterling?s winner just after the
half-hour mark. It was vintage City, a
celebration of their myriad strengths,
the speed of thought and movement,
the finesse in technique with De
Bruyne again the conductor. It was
classic pass and move fast, Sterling
playing the ball in to De Bruyne, then
racing on, knowing the return would
arrive. De Bruyne waited for the right
moment to release, weighted the ball
perfectly and lifted it over Newcastle?s
defence towards Sterling. The England
striker caught the ball with the base of
his left boot, placing it past Rob Elliot.
This was Sterling?s fourth goal in his
past three games, and his 17th of the
season in all competitions, and another
sign of how he has responded to the
coaching of Guardiola and his staff.
It immediately shredded Rafa
Ben韙ez?s cautious game plan. The
most damning statistic of the night
was that Ben韙ez?s 13 outfield players
completed 115 passes, seven fewer than
Otamendi, and Newcastle?s fifth defeat
on the spin at St James? Park was their
worst run here since 1953.
Newcastle were on the back foot
from the start, defending in depth in
front of the Gallowgate with Joselu a
distant figure in a 5-4-1 system, the
f
focus
on attrition not ambition.
B
Ben韙ez
started regulars such as Matt
Ritchie, Mikel Merino and Christian
Atsu on the bench, clearly focusing
on Brighton & Hove Albion on
Saturday and Stoke City on
Monday.
This was not an approach
i keeping with Newcastle
in
t
tradition,
this was damage
limitation, bordering on
s
surrender.
Being adventuro against one of the most
ous
accomplished teams in
r
recent
memory was, of
c
course,
a risk but Newcastle
f
fans
expect, and deserve, some
a
adventure,
some pride in the shirt,
not hide and get hurt.
They were almost breached even
b
before
Sterling?s strike. When Jacob
Murphy caught Ilkay G黱dogan,
D Bruyne swung the free kick in
De
from the right, only Elliot?s reflexes
kept out Sergio Ag黣ro?s header.
A
After
Sterling scored, City briefly
eased up, allowing Newcastle a
glimpse of goal. When Walker
slipped, Rolando Aarons collected
and, spotting Ederson off his line,
Sterling
De Bruyne
Sterling starts
his run as pass
is made
attempted to chip the Brazilian but
Otamendi headed off the line.
City fans up in the gods kept singing
in praise of Guardiola, and also chanting ?Jos�s cracking up?. They almost
had more to celebrate when G黱dogan
stole the ball off Mohamed Diam� but
Elliot pushed his shot away. De Bruyne
then shot wide and hit a post.
Ben韙ez began to make changes,
sending on Dwight Gayle for Joselu and
then Atsu for Aarons. Newcastle
suddenly believed. When Walker lost
the ball, Gayle raced through, angling
to the right as Danilo came across.
Gayle could have shot but he continued
and fell to earth as Danilo crossed
behind him. It was clear simulation,
well spotted by Andre Marriner, who
cautioned the Newcastle striker. It was
also a waste of a hugely promising
opportunity.
Newcastle?s fans were lifted by the
more attacking approach, and also
Ben韙ez needs cash injection to throw off the shackles
George Caulkin
Northern Sports Correspondent
Gauging the strength of a team?s revival
against Manchester City is like a golfer
testing his short game in the teeth of a
hurricane; bad for confidence and
ultimately futile. In deciding the risk
was not worth it, Rafa Ben韙ez offended
those who view the Premier League
through the prism of the top four, but he
also avoided a hammering, protected
Newcastle United?s goal difference and
saved some energy.
Is that what football has become? In
the bottom half of this moneydrenched division, where fear is the
prevailing motivation, it is the way of
things. After their welcome victory
over West Ham United, Ben韙ez
prepared for forthcoming matches
against Brighton & Hove Albion and
Stoke City, withdrawing Dwight Gayle,
Matt Ritchie and Christian Atsu and
piling men behind the ball.
Ben韙ez argued that his tactics suited
the occasion, that attempting to
restrain gilded opponents was simply
common sense. In the final 15 minutes,
Newcastle had a go, striving for an
equaliser, coming desperately close
through Mikel Merino, and the
manager?s calculation is that this
approach reflects his players? ability. As
Alan Shearer put it: ?A Championship
side playing in the Premier League?.
They are not good enough to be
better. Perhaps one day, but not yet and,
for spells in the first half, Newcastle?s leaden. ?Our fans are clever,? Ben韙ez
back five defended so deep that the said. ?They know we had to do it that
waters of the Tyne nearly lapped
way.?
at their shin pads. There were
Greater battles lie ahead, on
moments ? and plenty of
and off the pitch. Their next
them ? when Joselu, their
two fixtures pit them
lonely striker, was staagainst two of the three
tioned 30 yards within his
sides immediately above
City are one win from
own territory. Respite ?
them and if Ben韙ez?s
equalling the record for
and there was much less successive wins in top five team selection was a nod
European leagues, set by
of that ? was brief.
towards that then it was
Bayern Munich under
Ben韙ez has never been
understandable. Beyond
Pep Guardiola
an idealist. He plots and
that, Amanda Staveley?s
plans for everything, but unproposed takeover feels crucial
derstanding City?s genius is not parto the wellbeing of a club who
ticularly helpful; no team can break perpetually tiptoe along a precipice.
them down. Newcastle remained one
Ben韙ez has made little attempt to
scuffed, deflected shot away from an gloss over Newcastle?s frailties; they did
equaliser, even if the approach was not do their business adequately last
19
summer. It feels typically nonsensical
that so close to the transfer window
opening he has not been given any
indication about the size of his budget,
but money must be found.
A few bob for Aleksandar Mitrovic
would help, although Newcastle are yet
to receive any substantive interest in
the Serbia forward, who has had a back
problem. The 23-year-old is not trusted
by Ben韙ez and has expressed a desire to
leave. ?I?m sorry ? after all, I loved
Newcastle but it?s time for me to look
more to myself,? he said.
Ben韙ez, meanwhile, scrapes around
for answers. ?We?ll all have a party
when [Mike] Ashley sells the club,? their
supporters sang. But they must work
for it, for everything.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
67
2G M
Sport
dominant City
Kane: team trophies
will eclipse records
GREIG COWIE/BPI/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
Darren Witcoop
Harry Kane has said that he would
swap any further personal landmarks
for a long-awaited trophy with
Tottenham Hotspur.
Kane will finish 2017 with 39 Premier
League goals, eclipsing
Alan Shearer?s record
from 1995, thanks to his
latest hat-trick in the
5-2 rout of Southampton on Boxing Day.
His tally of 56 for club
and country during the
calendar year also makes
him the leading scorer in
Europe, ahead of Lionel Messi
of Barcelona and Argentina.
It is an impressive feat that will
take some beating, but Kane has
set his sights much higher for the
north London club. For all of
their near misses, Tottenham
have not lifted silverware since
beating Chelsea to win the
League Cup in 2008.
Asked if team records meant
more than the individual
accolades coming his way, Kane
said: ?Yeah, for sure, 100 per cent.
I?ve always said team trophies are
what I want to achieve.
?We?ve got a good chance to win
the FA Cup. In the Champions
League we?ve shown we can beat
the best and we?ve got to see how
far we can go in that.
?Obviously in the Premier League
we?re in a fight for the top four and
we?ve got to see how high we can get.
There?s a lot to play for and for me it?s
about winning trophies.?
Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham
manager, has placed Kane in the
bracket of Messi and Real Madrid?s
Cristiano Ronaldo as the world?s top
players.
Kane had spoken of his determination to one day rival the pair and he has
achieved that over a remarkable 12
months, during which he has scored
eight hat-tricks.
Despite his haul he still has some
way to go to eclipse them, with
his tenth-place finish in this
month?s Ballon d?Or proof.
At 24, however, time is on
his side.
?They?re both great
records but the club and
country one is good as it
shows I?m doing it at all
levels
?
Champions
League and for England ?
and not just in one competiti
tion,?
Kane said. ?That?s one I?m
very proud of.
?When you look at Messi and
Ronaldo, I?ve obviously still got a
long way to go before I can be
compared to them but it?s a start
and that?s what I want to do. I want
to keep improving and be up there
one day. That?s always the goal, to
be bracketed with the best players
in the world.?
Kane says he would swap his goal
accolades for team honours
Bolasie feared career was over
Yannick Bolasie said he feared he might
never play again after the knee injury
that required two operations and
forced him on to the sidelines for a year.
The Everton winger revealed the
doubts and torment that he endured
during his rehabilitation after his
comeback in the goalless draw with
West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day,
having been surprisingly named in Sam
Allardyce?s starting line-up.
Bolasie damaged the anterior
cruciate ligament and meniscus in
his right knee in the match against
Manchester United on December 4,
2016, and revealed how the full extent
of the injury cast a cloud over whether
he would play again.
?It was a career-threatening injury so
for me to be back where I am, and how
I?m feeling, is incredible,? said Bolasie,
who signed from Crystal Palace for
� million in August last year. ?I had
two operations on my leg.
?I didn?t want to come back and just
have my name on the shirt and not be
the same kind of player, but I felt like
with a bit more match sharpness I will
be probably even better.
?It still hasn?t hit me, to be honest. It
might take a couple of games. I don?t
know when I?m going to sit down and
think to myself, ?You?re back, Yann.?
?There are times when you don?t
know when the end of the road is
coming or when you?re going to be back
training or start playing. It?s hard to see.
?When I started seeing a little bit of
light that was great for myself and this
has just been a blessing.?
Allardyce will want the 28-year-old
to add more creativity to a side who
have struggled to carve out openings in
their past two matches but have kept six
clean sheets in eight games.
Everton are interested in signing
Cenk Tosun, the Besiktas striker, in the
January transfer window. The 26-yearold Turkey player is valued at about
� million by his club.
Moyes in a hurry to bring
?balance? to West Ham
Mutko resigns as head of
World Cup organisers
David Moyes said that he could be
forced into the transfer market to try
to fix West Ham United?s ?imbalanced?
squad as he seeks to pilot them away
from 17th place in the Premier League
(James Gheerbrant writes).
?We?re lacking quality,? Moyes said.
?I?ve given players opportunities. I?m
in a hurry. I can?t wait three or four
months. We?re short on midfielders,
with few who can play on the right.?
Moyes has declared an interest in
Jack Wilshere, the Arsenal midfielder,
and Seville?s Steven N?Zonzi. Everton?s
Morgan Schneiderlin and
Bournemouth?s Harry Arter have also
been linked with West Ham.
Vitaly Mutko has quit as the 2018
World Cup organising committee?s
chairman less than six months before
the tournament begins in Russia.
Having confirmed he had
temporarily stood down as the
Russian Football Union president on
Monday, Mutko has now left the team
preparing next summer?s tournament,
with Alexey Sorokin taking over.
The resignation of Mutko, Russia?s
deputy prime minister, comes in the
month the former minister of sport
received a lifetime ban from the
International Olympic Committee
following an investigation into
allegations of state-sponsored doping.
Paul Joyce
Sterling scores
his 13th league
goal of the
season after
De Bruyne
produced yet
another brilliant
assist, inset
giving their comment on the takeover
saga between Mike Ashley and Amanda Staveley by singing ?we?re all having
a party when Ashley sells the club?. The
deal needs to be imminent so Ben韙ez
can strengthen next month. Newcastle
employ a top-six manager working
with a bottom-six squad.
Ben韙ez made his final change, introducing Merino for Chancel Mbemba,
and Newcastle attacked the Gallowgate
with even greater urgency. Ben韙ez?s
changes were having an impact. Atsu
was troubling Walker, suddenly cutting
in and lifting in a low cross to Gayle,
whose angled header drifted wide.
St James? Park was now at its best, the
Gallowgate
bellowing,
urging
Newcastle forward. Merino?s passing
was making a difference, spreading
play, but City held on, helped by
Ederson?s time-wasting. Guardiola?s
men keep defeating opponents, and
overcoming the brutal schedule.
continued from back
City make it 18 straight wins
30 minutes I?ve ever seen from a side in
the Premier League?.
Asked if he thought that Newcastle?s
approach was bad for football,
Guardiola instead focused on the
achievement of his side.
?In these 18 games we have played
against teams who have done high
pressing, low pressing, counterattacks,
just set pieces, and some like Tottenham [Hotspur] who tried to go forward
and attack,? he said. ?And in all of them
we have been able to beat them.
?The magnificent thing about
football is that any manager of any
team can play in any way. Teams can try
to trick you, but you have to be able to
beat them and until now we have been
able to do that. Until now, we have
found a way to win.?
Should he have seen red? Newcastle
winger Jacob Murphy was not even
shown a yellow card for this challenge
on Ilkay G黱dogan in the first half
Although they were touched by
fatigue in the final 15 minutes, City
remain imperious, overcoming the
demands of the hectic Christmas
Newcastle United (5-4-1): R Elliot 7 ? D Yedlin 5,
C Mbemba 7 (sub: M Merino 77min), J Lascelles 7,
P Dummett 7, J Manquillo 6 ? R Aarons 6 (sub: C Atsu
71), J Shelvey 6, M Diam� 3, J Murphy 5 ? Joselu 5
(sub: D Gayle 62, 5).
Substitutes not used C Clark, M Ritchie, A P閞ez,
K Darlow. Booked Gayle.
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson 7 ? K Walker 7,
V Kompany 5 (sub: G Jesus 11, 7), N Otamendi 7, Danilo
7 ? K De Bruyne 8, Ferdandinho 7, I G黱dogan 7 ?
B Silva 7 (sub: L San� 83), S Ag黣ro 7 (sub: E Mangala
77), R Sterling 7.
Substitutes not used C Bravo, T Adarabioyo, Y Tour�,
B Diaz.
Referee A Marriner.
schedule and coping with the impact of
another injury to Vincent Kompany,
who was substituted in the 11th minute.
?Of course this was tough,?
Guardiola said. ?But if you analyse
the 90 minutes we were much, much
better. If you analysed only the last ten
minutes when [Newcastle] crossed
once and could have scored one goal, it
might have been different, but we were
much better.
?It?s not easy to maintain our focus in
this period, everyone is on holiday,
everyone has a party at home. To be
focused after 17 games in a row is not
easy, but we did it. We started really well
after the problem with Vincent and we
are just so happy to win again.
?We are happy to break records,
because we keep having one more, one
more, but when we prepare for games,
we don?t speak about records. We
just speak about what we have to do
to win.?
68
1G M
Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Sport The Ashes
Sport
Online today: unrivalled
coverage of all the overnight
action from Melbourne
6am
Read in-play analysis of
the opening two sessions
at the MCG
At the close
Mike Atherton?s
definitive report
on the third
day?s play
Plus
Gideon Haigh gives an
Australian perspective
while Simon Wilde adds
expert insight
9am
Reaction from the
England and Australia
camps
Read at thetimes.co.uk/sport and on The Times smartphone app
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Broad: I realised
Will Macpherson Melbourne
Even some firm friends and fierce
fans were writing Stuart Broad off
before the Boxing Day Test but the
England seamer found his best
figures of the year through a week of
reflection and rigorous training ?
and a shift in his bowling mindset.
Broad accepted that he had bowled
?very poorly? in the third Test in
Perth, where he was without zip,
rhythm or threat and he recorded the
worst figures of his career (0 for 142)
as England surrendered the urn.
What followed was a crucial few
days for Broad. As his old friend
James Anderson said: ?The way I?ve
seen Stuart Broad work this week has
been as hard as I?ve ever seen
someone work at their game. He?s
done the hours in the nets, working
on his technique and action.?
Broad said: ?I worked incredibly
hard this week physically and
mentally, had a few days off looking
at certain things, and ran in hard in
the nets trying to get the rhythm
back. I spent time with Colly [Paul
Collingwood] trying to look at my
strengths. It?s been a tough couple of
weeks really, but it makes playing and
taking wickets very rewarding.?
On Boxing Day he broke a wicketless run that had lasted 414 balls
across 69 overs, four innings and 23
days. He followed that up bowling
well on the second morning, trapping
Shaun Marsh and Jackson Bird in
front, then had Pat Cummins caught
behind to finish with four for 51 from
28 overs. He had bowled noticeably
fuller and believed he had been guilty
in Perth of looking to prevent boundaries rather than seek wickets.
?I worked on some mental stuff,?
he said. ?I?m a better bowler when I
attack. On a very good pitch to bat on
at the Waca I fell into the trap of
looking to not concede runs, instead
of looking to take wickets. I took a
couple of days to realise that. I need
that mentality as a bowler: ?Where is
my next wicket coming from?? Not
?Where am I going to stop the next
boundary?? It?s a small mental
change but quite a big thing for me.
I?ve run in well here thinking about
how I would get batsmen out.?
Broad said that it had been
important to keep himself away from
DIGEST
DOWN
UNDER
By Will Macpherson
Ending the year with a bang
Broad finds form with his best
figures of 2017
4-51 v Australia
Melbourne, December
3-34 v West Indies
Edgbaston, August
3-46 v South Africa
Old Trafford, August
3-49 v Australia
Brisbane, November
3-64 v South Africa
Trent Bridge, July
what was being written and said.
Michael Vaughan, with whom he
holidayed at Margaret River before
the Perth Test, had called for Joe
Root to drop Broad and he was not
alone in holding such an opinion.
?[It was] one of those weeks where
you get your tin hat on, duck down,
and don?t see much,? he said. ?I?ve
been unaware of what?s written,
what?s been said. You have to go to
that place as a sportsman, find something within yourself, build yourself
back up. You can get yourself in a
dark place if you read everything. It?s
only two weeks since I was on holiday
with him [Vaughan] so I don?t know
what he?s been saying. It?s always
been a strategy of mine to get away
from things. Christmas helps, you get
a little time away from it all.
?Things change quickly in sport,
and people have to be critical at
times. I won?t hold any grudges if
people slag me off because in 15 years?
time I might be doing the same ?
although not in six months.?
That final comment was a cheeky
Malan to captain Middlesex
South Africa win four-day
Test with two days to spare
Dawid Malan, below, has been a rare
English winner on this Ashes tour so
far, with a century in Perth and 302
runs in the first three Tests. There is
good news when he finally gets
home too, as he is set to be
announced as Middlesex?s new
captain, replacing James Franklin.
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At one stage on the
second morning, Tom
Curran was bowling
to Shaun and Mitchell
Marsh. The obvious
link between the trio
? along with Jonny Bairstow and
Stuart Broad ? is that their fathers
played international cricket. But the
Marshs and the Currans (Tom is
unlikely to be the last to play for
England) run deeper. In 2004, the
Currans were evicted from their farm
in Zimbabwe by the Mugabe regime.
They were taken in by Geoff Marsh,
then the Zimbabwe coach, and his
family in their house in Harare. There,
Mitch and the Curran brothers
became firm friends.
No day-night Test in 2019
Despite a successful first day-night
Ashes Test in Adelaide, the prospect
of a pink-ball game in the 2019 home
series looks slim after Tom Harrison,
the ECB chief executive, all but ruled
it out. ?It?s unlikely,? Harrison told
ABC. ?We?ve got a format that works
brilliantly well for us in the UK.?
The one-off pink-ball Test match
between South Africa and Zimbabwe
in Port Elizabeth, officially the first to
be scheduled to finish in four days,
was completed yesterday in not
much more than four sessions.
Zimbabwe, resuming on 30 for four
in reply to 309 for nine declared,
were bundled out for 68 and 121 on
the second day to lose by an innings
and 120 runs. Only two Test matches
have been over more quickly since
the Second World War.
?I don?t think we were
overwhelmed but . . . we didn?t assess
conditions that well,? Graeme Cremer,
captain of the lowest-ranked Test
nation, said. ?This shows us where we
are and where we need to be.?
Morne Morkel was the destroyerin-chief in Zimbabwe?s first innings
with figures of five for 21. Zimbabwe
reached 54 without loss second time
around, but then lost all ten wickets
in a single session between tea and
dinner, with Keshav Maharaj, the
left-arm spinner, taking five for 59.
South Africa begin a three-Test series
against India next week.
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
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I needed to attack
SCOTT BARBOUR/GETTY IMAGES
continued from back
Cook gives England dignity
135 behind Australia, having lost just
Mark Stoneman and James Vince on a
flat, slow surface that suited Cook as
Australia struggled with Mitchell Starc
injured and Pat Cummins unwell.
Cook was on 93 when Steve Smith,
who became debutant Tom Curran?s
first Test wicket yesterday, brought
himself on to bowl the day?s final over.
It took only four balls for Cook to move
to his 32nd Test hundred from 164 balls
and he followed it with an emotional
celebration. Broad said that Cook had
been unfazed by the criticism he had
received on this tour, and had no doubt
that runs would come in time.
?The celebrations in the changing
room when he got that hundred were
huge, that?s testament to the way he is,?
Broad said. ?He?s a calm character,
doesn?t get fazed or down. He went
through so much stuff with his captaincy that I?m not sure a bit of stick about
not getting runs is going to bother him
too much. He?s a tough character and
things were going to go his way
eventually. He has always had these
periods in his career when he might not
have scored the runs he wants, then he
gets a really big score.?
Broad said that he and Cook had
been forced to dig deep to produce a
performance and that even after more
than 100 Test matches and hosts of
broken records they had felt that they
were playing for their careers. Broad is
three wickets away from becoming the
second Englishman to reach 400 Test
wickets after James Anderson, while in
reaching 104 not out, Cook passed
Mahela Jayawardena to reach 11,816
Test runs. He is eighth on the all-time
list.
?Every time you step on the field you
are pretty much playing for your
career,? Broad said. ?It shows a huge
amount of character to be under that
sort of scrutiny and pressure and come
out and deliver any sort of performance, let alone a hundred like Cooky
just has.
?I don?t think you play this much
international sport without some kind
of deep inner self-confidence that you
can call on when you are very low. Both
of us have put in strong performances
over these two days. Now we need three
more fantastic days to win this Test.?
Second day, session by session
Broad enjoys
being back in
the wickets as
Shaun Marsh is
out leg-before
riposte to suggestions that he could
find himself commentating on the
game rather than playing it imminently, but Broad says he always felt
that his form would return.
?You have periods where things
happen for you,? he said. ?Umpire?s
call, slashes through slips going to
hand . . . sometimes they don?t. All
you can do as a sportsman is make
sure you are looking to improve and
that you are competitive. I was not as
competitive as I should have been in
Perth. I wanted to improve that.?
Anderson enters top five Test wicket-takers
kers
1. M Muralitharan (SL)
800
2. S Warne (Aus)
708
08
3. A Kumble (India)
4. G McGrath (Aus)
5. J Anderson (Eng)
619
563
521
GAME ON
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Morning
A fine session for
England, is sparked by
the lucky dismissal of
Steve Smith by Tom
Curran, below. He drags
the ball on, as does
Mitchell Marsh (to Chris
Woakes, also cutting)
and Tim Paine (to
James Anderson,
pulling). Paine?s wicket
takes Anderson past
Courtney Walsh to 520,
and second on the list
of Test fast-bowling
wicket-takers. Stuart
Broad dismisses Shaun
Marsh ? who had just
passed 50 ? and
Jackson Bird, both lbw.
Broad, an infamously
poor judge of a review,
even gets a not out
decision overturned to
dismiss Marsh.
Score: Australia 326-8.
Runs 82. Wickets: 5.
RR: 3.15
Afternoon
Broad gets his fourth
wicket (his best return
of 2017), Pat Cummins
caught at first slip, with
the second ball after
lunch. Anderson has
Nathan Lyon lbw,
Australia are all out for
327, losing their last
seven wickets for 83
yesterday.
England start
well, with only
y
Mark Stoneman
falling by tea. He
makes 15 before
chipping back to Lyon
? who took another
brilliant caught and
bowled ? off the
leading edge.
Cummins is
struggling
badly with a
stomach bug,
while Alastair
Cook looks in
fluent form and
has 37 ? his equal
highest score of the
series.
Score: Australia
327; England 74-1.
Runs 75. Wickets
3. RR: 2.78
Will Macpherson
Evening
James Vince falls to the
first ball he faces of the
session, plumb in front
to Josh Hazlewood but,
had he reviewed, DRS
would have revealed he
hit it. Cook and Joe Root
build a partnership, with
a stand of 100 arriving
in 30 overs. Cook is
dropped on 66
by Smith ?
whose line of
sight is
obscured by
Paine ? at slip
off Mitchell
Marsh. Root
ends the day
on 49, but
Cook reaches
a 32nd Test
hundred
after Smith
brings
himself on
to bowl.
Score:
England
E
1192-2. Runs:
118. Wickets: 1.
11
R 3.47
RR:
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Thursday December 28 2017 | the times
Sport The Ashes
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Cook and Broad
remind the critics
they are not done
Mike Atherton
Chief Cricket
Correspondent
Melbourne
Australia v England
Melbourne (second day of five) England, with eight
first-innings wickets in hand, are 135 runs behind
Australia
Australian captains are not known for
their generosity but, with Alastair Cook
seven short of his hundred as the last
over of the day dawned, Steve Smith
presented him with a belated
Christmas gift, wrapping, tinsel and
all, by bringing himself on to bowl.
A full toss, leg-stump half-volley and
long hop later, Cook had his 32nd Test
hundred and a full house of hundreds
across Australia?s five main Test
grounds. His relief, and England?s, was
palpable as he, and they, ended their
best day of the tour. Given that Smith
had earlier spilt Cook at slip, England?s
greatest run-getter had much to thank
Australia?s captain for.
Before the Melbourne Test, with the
Ashes gone and spirits sinking at home,
England had reached the ?something
must be done? stage. Variously, there
were calls for senior players to be
dropped and a wholesale cull, mainly
based not on cricketing logic but on the
need to do something, anything, rather
than nothing.
It would have been tempting for
England?s management to cave in to
public sentiment ? much as happened
in 2013-14 when throwing young
players into the mix made things worse,
not better ? much harder in some ways
to retain faith in struggling senior
players. Their inaction has so far been
vindicated, with the tried and tested to
the fore over two competitive days of
cricket.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad
shared seven of the Australia wickets to
fall, five of them on an excellent second
morning for England in which
Australia lost their last seven wickets
for 67 ? a very English-style collapse
? following the early and entirely
unexpected dismissal of Smith. Cook
then shaped England?s reply with his
most fluent batting of the series, sharing a 112-run partnership with Joe Root
who, though never fluent, was better
balanced than of late.
Anderson has upheld expectations to
a large degree ? with the wicket of Tim
Paine, he went past Courtney Walsh,
leaving only Glenn McGrath of fast
bowlers ahead of him on the all-time
list ? but Broad and Cook have been,
along with Moeen Ali, the biggest disappointments of the tour. Broad?s four
wickets, then, were timely and represented his best return of the year, while
Cook moved more confidently into the
ball than he has done at any stage previously. Ali? He remained wicketless, was
scantily used and will need some runs
to justify his continued involvement.
At 33 and 31 respectively, neither
Cook nor Broad is old in years, but they
have plenty of miles on the clock. Both
have been questioned in contrasting
ways: Cook?s desire, rather than his
ability, has been queried, while Broad?s
pace, or lack of it, has raised the possibility that time is running short. The
first is guesswork ? only Cook knows
how strong his desire is ? while the
second has been based on genuine evidence, not all of which was dispelled
yesterday, despite a four-wicket haul. It
was good to see both in the mix, scrapping for their captain and their team.
Cook?s return to form was the most
heartening aspect of the day. Before the
Perth Test he had put his philosophy in
disarmingly simple terms (?I try my
bollocks off, really,? he had said) but
here it was apparent that as well as
trying his damnedest, there was a little
more freedom about his play, too.
Maybe he had been trying too hard
before and he relaxed a touch and
expressed himself a little more.
Possibly, the realisation that the new
ball is the best time to bat on this pitch
helped him to be more positive in his
footwork and intentions. Reverse swing
had helped Broad and Anderson get a
sliver of lateral movement earlier in the
day and Australia found similar movement because of the abrasiveness of the
surface, from around the 20th over. By
this stage Cook was into the 40s and
Day two scoreboard
Australia: First Innings (overnight 244-3)
C T Bancroft lbw b Woakes.....................26
D A Warner c Bairstow b Anderson....103
U T Khawaja c Bairstow b Broad .......... 17
*S P D Smith b Curran................................ 76
S E Marsh lbw b Broad............................... 61
M R Marsh b Woakes.................................... 9
?T D Paine b Anderson..............................24
P J Cummins c Cook b Broad...................4
J M Bird lbw b Broad..................................... 4
J R Hazlewood not out................................. 1
N M Lyon lbw b Anderson......................... 0
Extras (lb 1, nb 1)...............................................2
Total (119 overs).................................... 327
Fall of wickets 1-122, 2-135, 3-160,
4-260, 5-278, 6-314, 7-318, 8-325, 9-326,
10-327.
Bowling Anderson 29-11-61-3;
Broad 28-10-51-4; Woakes 22-4-72-2;
Ali 12-0-57-0; Curran 21-5-65-1;
Malan 7-1-20-0.
England: First Innings
A N Cook not out........................................104
M D Stoneman c and b Lyon...................15
J M Vince lbw b Hazlewood.....................17
*J E Root not out........................................... 49
Extras (b 4, nb 3).............................................. 7
Total (2 wkts, 57 overs)....................... 192
D J Malan, ?J M Bairstow, M M Ali,
C R Woakes, T K Curran, S C J Broad,
and J M Anderson to bat.
Fall of wickets 1-35, 2-80.
Bowling Hazlewood 12-2-39-1;
Bird 12-2-38-0; Lyon 17-2-44-1;
Cummins 11-0-39-0; M Marsh 4-0-17-0;
Smith 1-0-11-0.
Umpires H D P K Dharmasena
(Sri Lanka) and S Ravi (India).
Third umpire J Wilson (West Indies).
Series: First Test Australia won by ten
wickets (Brisbane). Second Test
Australia won by 120 runs (Adelaide).
Third Test Australia won by an innings
and 41 runs (Perth). Fifth Test Jan 4-8
(Sydney).
had already unfurled seven boundaries,
including three rarely sighted straight
drives off the front foot.
The hunt for reverse swing and the
turgid nature of the pitch shaped the
style of cricket played. Captains kept
slips to a minimum unless a new
batsman was at the crease, posted
catchers in front of, rather than behind
the wicket, gave the bowlers cover on
the leg side, allowing them to pitch
straight looking for lbws and the
stumps. Of the nine wickets to fall in the
day, three were bowled, all drag-ons in
the morning, and four were leg-before.
England could be thankful, then, that
Mitchell Starc, Australia?s best exponent of manipulating the scarred ball,
was not playing and Smith was also
hampered by an illness to Pat Cummins, who was variously on and off the
field with nausea, below full speed
when he did bowl and who generally
looked very sorry for himself throughout, taking regular ministrations on the
boundary edge. Without Starc?s variety
and Cummins? speed, the attack had a
more humdrum quality.
It feels like the best opportunity, then,
for England to achieve a first firstinnings lead in the series, essential you
would think if a winning position is to
be forged. They lost Mark Stoneman to
a fine return catch by Nathan Lyon and
James Vince leg-before to Josh Hazlewood ? evidence suggested an inside
edge ? and might have lost Cook, too,
had Smith not fumbled a catch at first
slip off Mitchell Marsh when the batsman had made 66. Smith is normally a
sure hand in that position, but with
Paine standing up to the stumps
because of the slowness of the pitch,
Smith could have been unsighted for a
short while.
That was the only chance Cook gave
in an otherwise assured stay and Root
was thankful for the familiar sight at the
other end. And it was a familiar sight by
the evening session, with Cook very
much back in the groove, clipping with
precision through the leg side, cutting
clinically through the off and playing
Lyon with far more conviction than he
had done at Adelaide.
The day?s most significant event,
though, involved a rookie rather than a
regular and came in the eighth over of
the morning, when Smith chopped a
wide long hop from Tom Curran onto
his stumps, adding just 11 to his overnight score. Smith?s record at the MCG
is such that he would regard 76 as a
relative failure and his departure once
again highlighted the reality that there
are two Australia teams at the moment,
one when Smith is batting, and the
other when he?s not.
The back of Smith certainly spurred
Broad into action, turning his overnight figures of 19-6-41-1 into 28-1051-4 and answering a few critics in the
process. He picked up the other key
wicket of the morning when he moved
one fractionally back into Shaun
Marsh, winning a leg-before decision.
With Cummins caught at slip and Jackson Bird leg-before, Broad moved to
397 Test wickets.
Along with Cook?s 32nd Test hundred, England were reeling off the right
kind of statistics for once.
Stalwart gets a helping
hand from captain Smith
With Alastair Cook on 66 and desperately looking to go on and make a first
Ashes century for seven years, the England opening batsman was in receipt
of some uncharacteristic assistance from Steve Smith when the Australia
captain dropped him at first slip off the bowling of Mitchell Marsh
England?s leading Test
Cook and Broad played
with positivity and an
edge they had lacked,
writes Gideon Haigh
Cricket is often called an individual
game in a team setting. In which case,
the term ?dead? Test will always be a
misnomer. There will always be personal points to prove, singular purposes to
be pursued. It even makes a certain
sense in this context that England,
relieved of the Ashes, have an edge in
this fourth Test: their individuals have
by far the most ground to make up.
It was hard to choose who had the
poorer Waca Test out of Alastair Cook
and Stuart Broad. The pitch seemed
simultaneously too fast for Cook and
too slow for Broad, the Australians too
much for either, and the Ashes too hot
to hold.
They are cricketers of a certain age,
with great records, and maybe also
dwindling motivations. No Englishman
has scored more Test runs than Cook;
only one has taken more wickets than
Broad. Where else to go? What else to
prove? There was even a school of
thought that England might do without
them in Melbourne, although it was not
obvious who would take their places.
They had toiled in the nets before the
game like ascetics. ?Dead? Test? Not
here, not now, not for either man.
If Cook?s 150th Test had looked
perilously like a cricket funeral, his 151st
has now unfolded into a disarmingly
cheerful wake. His 32nd Test century
was no dogged entrenchment. It was
positive, even in defence, his body
forming strong shapes, his bat erecting
broad barriers.
For a batsman otherwise so prudent,
too, Cook rather revels in the hook and
pull, which he?s prepared to play in the
air ? sometimes, as in Brisbane, to his
cost. Yesterday, he was determined to
get it right. First, he almost dragged
Jackson Bird on; next he miscued Josh
Hazlewood; at last, as Pat Cummins
the times | Thursday December 28 2017
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WILLIAM WEST/GETTY IMAGES
Slow pitch helped the opener
The wagon wheel for Alastair Cook?s scoring zones shows how
slow the pitch was. A strong player off the back foot, he would
often make runs behind square, but Cook scored 30 runs
through the mid-wicket area and 27 through the covers.
A big hit at every Aussie venue
Cook now has centuries at all five leading grounds in Australia.
Sunil Gavaskar is the only other touring player to have done so
His centuries in Australia
(Ave: 46.09* ? better than
career Test average of 45.97)
The Gabba, Nov 2010
235*
SCG, Jan 2011
189
Adelaide Oval, Dec 2010
148
Waca, Dec 2006
116
MCG, Dec 2017
104*
His best efforts in home
Ashes Tests (Ave: 29.60)
Lord?s, July 2015
96
The Oval, Aug 2015
85
Old Trafford, Aug 2013
62
Chester-le-Street, Aug 2013
51
Trent Bridge, July 2013
50
Edgbaston, July 2015
34
Headingley, Aug 2009
30
Cardiff, July 2015
20
11,816
151
Tests for Cook, five behind
seventh-placed Allan Border
Cook moved past Mahela
Jayawardena to become the
eighth highest Test runscorer
of all time. Shivnarine
Chanderpaul (11,867) and
Brian Lara (11,953) are the
next on the list. The 8,900
scored by Graham Gooch, in
15th, is the next best by an
English batsman
runscorer grabs chance to show he has appetite for more
dropped short, he nailed it, and flourishingly ? had the shot peeled from
Kevin Pietersen?s bat it would have been
called flamboyant.
Cook followed up with a cover drive
off the front foot ? a shot he essays
rarely. It was not seen again, but after
further boundaries down the ground
and through gully, Steve Smith posted a
deep backward point, two-thirds of the
way to the rope. Still more surprisingly,
Cook picked out the man three times,
for long singles. Good captaincy, but
also a tiny concession ? Australia?s
captain, with the Ashes in his pocket,
was defending, against Cook, as his
formidable pacemen bowled.
Luck came Cook?s way, as it must:
Smith shelled an edge at slip, perhaps
unsighted by Tim Paine, the wicketkeeper, who had just gone up to the
stumps. As the day ended, Smith sought
to prey on a memory, having ended a
long Cook vigil with minutes of a day to
go during the 2015 Oval Test. This time,
however, he provided an over of dross,
enabling Cook to add another record to
his hoard ? a century at each Australian Test venue at which he has played.
Actually, the Australia attack for the
first time this summer seemed
stretched. Mitchell Starc was unavoidably missed. From lengths where the ball
had flown in Perth, nicks were barely
carrying to slip. Though he executed
another of his India rubber man return
catches, Nathan Lyon obtained more
turn when he heaved a beach ball back
into the crowd.
Hazlewood plugged away nobly, but
Bird and Mitchell Marsh could find
little assistance, while Cummins was
reportedly stricken with stomach
trouble. His second ball after tea was an
83mph half-tracker that Cook yanked
through mid-wicket as though knocking off a flower with a walking stick.
When Cook punched the last ball of the
over through the off side, Cummins
seized his sun hat and glasses dreaming
of a palm tree a